DISCOURSES 



ON 



VARIOUS POINTS 



OF 



CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 



AND 



PRACTICE. 



By ROBERT BRUCE, D. D. 
Principal of the Western University of Pennsylvania. 



PITTSBURGH. 
PRINTED BT D. AND M, MACLEAN, 



1829. 




WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit: 

Be it remembered, That on the twelfth day of May, in the fifty -third 
year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1829, 
ROBERT BRUCE, D. D., of the said District, hath deposited in this 
Office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author and 
Proprietor, in the words following, to wit: 

" Discourses on various points of Christian Doctrine and 
" Practice. By Robert Bruce, D. D., Principal of the Western 
" University of Pennsylvania." 

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, 
H An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of 
Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, 
during the times therein mentioned." — And also to the Act entitled, " An 
Act supplementary to an Act entitled, ' An Act for the encouragement of 
learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors 
and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned/ and 
extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and 
etching historical and other prints." E. J. ROBERTS, 

Qlk. West. Dist. of Pennsylvania, 

*kr Jf$ 



INTRODUCTION. 



The object which the Author had in view in publishing these dis- 
courses, was to present, under as condensed a form as possible, several 
articles of divine truth, and the principal arguments by which they are 
supported. The present method of prosecuting an inquiry after truth 
being essentially different from that which was pursued in any age pre- 
viously, it was supposed that the results in which our forefathers rested 
would not be altered by the most particular appeals which could be made 
to the principles of human nature, and to the voice of scripture as address- 
ing itsslfto the common seuseof mankind. Hence the reader will not 
find many minute criticisms on particular passages of scripture in th«se 
discourses; but rather an attempt to catch the impression which an intel- 
ligent reader would, in resting upon the authority of the word of God, 
necessarily receive on the paitieular subject in question. This principle 
it will be necessary to keep in mind, to understand the method of ma- 
soning which on the most of the doctrinal subjects has been adopted. 

In the discourses on Heb. 13:12, the view of salvation by Christ, and 
particularly that of faith, is the same with that which, about two hundred 
years ago, divines generally expressed after the following manner. " The 
grace of God is manifested in the second covenant, in that he freely pro- 
videth and ofFereth to sinners a Mediator, and life and salvation by him; 
and, requiring faith as the condition to interest them in him, promiseth and 
giveth his holy Spirit to all his elect, to work in them that faith with ali 
other graces." — In these discourses, the definite nature of Christ's satisfac- 
tion is attempted to be placed on the pure relations of justice; and though 
God could not appoint a Mediator for man titi man needed him, and the 
grace of God might be sovereignly manifested in delivering to death the jtast 
for the unjust; yet it is attempted to demonstrate, that faith is a moral 
duty, presupposing the original moral law eonereated with man, and arising 
out of this moral law absolutely and necessarily whenever God set up his 
Son in the offer of the gospel as our Mediator. Faith is considered under 
two aspects, as a duty appointed, and as a grace received; and while the 
duty by the authority of the moral law is indispensably required, the grace 



IV 



INTRODUCTION. 



which cornea from the spirit of Christ enables to perform that duty; and 
thus our faith, as all the celebrated reformers stated, precedes the actnal 
pardon of our sins. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 

saved." 

In the discourse on John 5:18, mysterious as is the doctrine of regene- 
ration, yet an attempt is made to penetrate as deeply as possible into the 
subject, on this general principle, that when scripture deviates from the 
common language of mankind, it is intended to present to their common 
sense semething that has a peculiarity in it. In the most of divines which 
the author of these discourses has had an opportunity of consulting, beau- 
tiful metaphors and expressions are often used respecting regeneration; 
but while they are professing logically to discuss the subject, he could not 
ascertain that they communicated any very determinate views in relation 
to it. — I have attempted to show, that as God breathed into man the 
breath of life, so there is a supernatural principle of life and action breathed 
into the soul in the day of its creation anew. 

Jt struck me, that by leaving out some of the applications to the doctrinal 
discourses, the arguments would appear more a naked whole to operate on 
the understanding; and especially that this would be proper with those 
argumentative discourses which succeed one another on the same subject. 
Several of these discourses are therefore presented without any particular 
application. x It seemed not to be a practice recommended by the habits of 
mankind, to make every thing of one form; and therefore, though some 
may think that the want of an application in some of these discourses is a 
great deficiency, yet with many judicious people it is hoped that this will 
not be the case. 

The Author had another reason: he was desirous to give to his sub- 
scribers, and to the public, a more extensive range of subjects than, in the 
volume proposed, could be done, unless the plan pursued had been adopt* 
ed. Consequently there is to be found, in addition to those mentioned 
in the prospectus, in this volume, a discourse on the Signs of the Times, 
on the Holy Sabbath, on the Creation of Light, on the Training up of Child- 
ren, and on the Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch. These discourses, 
it is hoped, will, by the generality of readers, be considered a great addition 
of important subjects — executed, indeed, as the rest are, with many imper- 
fections. 

Part of this volume consists of discourses which were composed when 
the author was a student in divinity, and when he had much time to devote 
to the study of the most celebrated authors. That on the evidences of 
the resurrection of Christ, those on Heb. J 3:12, and that on 1st John 5:18, 
were composed then nearly as now presented. It was shortly after he enter- 
ed on the ministry that he composed the last in the volume, and that on the 



INTRODUCTION. 



V 



Training tip of Children. That on the Signs of the Times was delivered 
before the Associate Synod a good many years ago; and that on Brotherly 
Love about 1818, when there were some serious disturbances in the Asso- 
ciate Presbyterian Congregation of Pittsburgh. That on the Divinity of 
Christ was principally composed to complete the contemplated arrange- 
ment of this volume. Those on the Sabbath and on Light are newly 
composed. — In respect to this last, (on Light,) I am sensible many will 
not be much pleased with it; but others, it is hoped, will be of a different 
opinion; for the author thought that those immense discoveries which are 
made in modern science could not be supposed absolutely all incapable of 
being applied to the religious character of man; and he has attempted to 
make a slender experiment on some of the properties of light. 

If there be any thing erroneous in these discourses, the Author most 
sincerely wishes that God would prevent any injurious consequences from 
following; and what is truth and just principles of conduct, he hopes God 
will bless, to some at least, to show that, when there are so many evidences, 
as in this volume, of the treasure being put in an earthen vessel, the power 
which enlightens and saves men is from God himself. 



CONTENTS 



DISCOURSE. PAGE, 

I. The Duties of the Preacher and Hearer of the 

Gospel; Acts 10:29. - 9 

II. Christ's Resurrection; Math. 28:6. - - 45 

III. Christ's Divinity; Heb. 1:6. - 73 

IV. Christ's Suffering without the gate; Heb. 13: 12. 95 
V. The People Sanctified by Christ's Blood; 

Heb. 13:12. - - - - - - 115 

VI. Sanctification from Guilt; Heb. 13:12. < 131 

VII. Sanctification to Life; Heb. 13:12. - - 153 

VIII. He who is Born of God sinnethnot; 1 John 5: IS. 183 

IX. The Signs of the Times; Math. 16:3. - - 206 

X. The Sabbath; Exodus 20:8. 234 

XI. Brotherly Love; 1 John 4:11. 257 
XIJ. The Duty of Parents to their Children; Prov. 22: 6. 277 

XIII. Light; Gen. 1:3. - - - - - 290 

XIV. The Conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch; Acts 8: 39. 307 
XV. God's Blessing to his People; Rev. 22:21. - 328 



DISCOURSE I 



ON THE DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND HEARER OF 
THE GOSPEL. 



Acts 10:29. I ash, therefore, for what intent ye hate sent 
for me?* 

When, my brethren, an important affair occasions the meet- 
ing of parties, an explanation of the sense in which . the one 
party understands the other, is of great utility to both. On 
the rise of a confederacy, from the reciprocal exigencies of those 
communities whose respective interests cannot be consulted 
but by measures which promote that of the whole, an explica- 
tion of the articles of agreement and conjunct interest takes 
place. All are sensible that they cannot, unless they under- 
stand the views from which they are united, act so as to obtem- 
perate the laws of their mutual obligation, and to secure the 
objects of their general interest. How, says the sacred pen- 
man, can two walk together except they be agreed? Every 
nation, and every society, in every agreement of lasting im- 
portance, most solemnly ratify their stipulations, and preserve 
records which contain the rules of their interchangeable duties. 

This right of understanding, in affairs of mutual concern, 
one another's mind, obtains no less in spiritual than in secular 
transactions. God, the great administrator of the covenant of 
grace, graciously displays, on his part, the order of all his 

* Preached in Pittsburgh the first Sabbath after being ordained in 
the Congregation. 
2 



10 



DUTIES OP THE PREACHER AND 



councils and procedure, for our salvation ; and the duties and 
exercises which, on ours, must be supported, are equally clearly 
revealed. In the manifestation of this grand transaction, the 
whole mind of God, in commands and threatenings, in doctrines 
and gracious promises,, as they compose the dispensation of 
his will to us, is prominently presented ; and every part of the 
corresponding exercises, faith, love, and obedience, by which 
we should receive and improve these truths of God for our 
salvation, is no less pointedly inculcaled. Greatly does reve- 
lation illustrate the grand and endearing truth which these 
words sum up, " I will be to you a God, and ye shall be to me 
a people." 

What obtains in the affairs of the world, and between the 
gracious and almighty God, in his dispensation of mercy, and 
the saints who are to improve it, the language throughout this 
passage of holy writ, whence we have extracted the subject of 
our discourse, instructs us, should obtain between the appoint- 
ed ministers of the gospel, and those who send for them. 

Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian band, a devout man, 
and one that feared God with all his house, had a messenger 
sent from God, expressly to announce to him the joyful news 
that his prayers and alms had come up for a memorial before 
God, and that he should now send to Joppa to call Simon the 
apostle. This apcstle, at the same time, had a vision, the 
interpretation of which revealed to him, that, in the progress of 
the kingdom of Christ, the Gentiles had actually come to be 
fellow-heirs of the grace of God with the Jews ; and that he 
should go down with those men whom Cornelius sent to inquire 
for him, though Cornelius was a Gentile. Following the dic- 
tates of the spirit of God, Peter the zealous apostle of our Lord 
Jesus, goes down with the men who were sent for him, doubt- 
ing nothing; — and his language to this first fruit of the Gentiles 
is : — Therefore came I unto thee, without gainsaying, as soon 
as I was sent for: I ask, therefore, for what intent ye have 
sent for me? 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



11 



The accommodation of these words to our present situation 
is natural and inviting: and the proposition which the accom- 
modation recommends to our illustration, is, That it is the 
privilege of a minister to know, from itself, for what particu- 
lar purposes he has been called to the inspection of a particular 
part of God's church. 

No doubl, my brethren, the reasons of this doctrine are pre- 
sumed by you; and its illustration may, in a great measure, 
have been anticipated, both by you, in your solicitations as a 
branch of God's church for my labors, and by myself, in pre- 
ferring the sound of his voice as uttered by you, to many other 
instances in which it was heard with an equally urgent tone, 
aad nearly expressive claim. 

With respect to the reasons, let us only apply the introducto- 
ry idea to our present case, and ask, What would be the disad- 
vantages that would necessarily follow from a misunderstanding 
of that connexion which is now formed — whose influences will 
not be bounded by time, but which will reach throughout 
eternity? Were you, for instance, or any part or you, to sup- 
pose that I am to circumscribe the subjects about to be chosen 
for your instruction, to the purity of moral duties only; that 
the ainiableness of moral virtue, and the motives which encou- 
rage it, were to form even the piincipal part of my instructions, 
you would entertain a very erroneous notion of my intentions 
as a minister of the gospel. Were any of you to presume that 
1 would certainly rise above the useful and rational principles 
of morality, and the enforcement of the practice founded in 
them; but that I would not go beyond the statement of that 
doctrine which affixes eternal life to the merits of our own 
obedience, supported and encouraged by the promises of divine 
assistance and acceptance, still you would have a misjudged 
and an imperfect view of my intention. On the other hand, did 
I think that you intended that I should not be careful for the 
preservation of all the government and discipline of the church ; 
i&at I should reprove vice by the delivery .of truth from the 



12 



DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 



place only where I now stand, and not by that authority which 
ecclesiastical judicatories exercise; would not I have a very 
different view of your mind from what is the true state of your 
expectations? 

What I intend, then, in the further illustration of this subject 
is, first, To enumerate and define to you the ends for which I 
understand you to have sent for me; secondly, To give you 
some directions upon the view which I have of your invitation, 
in regard to the exercises which, on your part, originate from 
the connexion which is now formed; and, thirdly, To apply 
these respective views. 

I do not presume any of you so ignorant of the end of a gospel- 
ministry, as to suppose that any one, in this assembly, or any 
whose voice may have co-operated with it, could have wished 
that solemn connexion, which has now taken place, to be form- 
ed, from other motives than what lead to a design of promoting 
the welfare of the church of Christ, and also the interests of 
religion in your own hearts. There may be some within the 
horizon of the visible church whose minds are so wofully be- 
clouded, that they will desire the privileges of God's ordinances, 
merely that they may have the opportunity of maintaining the 
appearance of a religious character among men : that on the 
Sabbah day they may spend an hour in that place and society, 
that will throw a veil of sanctity over their persons, and give 
their names, when they stand candidates for the business or 
offices of mankind, a savor of sweetness in the christian com- 
munity. And there may be some who will desire these ordi- 
nances administered by a particular individual, from motives 
which are not more estimable. But, my brethren, I am per- 
suaded better things of you. I will not entertain the belief that 
a part of God's church would have chosen me a minister of the 
gospel, from such unworthy views : and I hope that if any has 
done so, the necessity of enlarging upon the unadvised proce- 
dure at present, will be superseded, by the the divine blessing 
on future administrations, which shall be, if Jehovah assist, as 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



13 



far as possible from countenancing such mean views of religion 
and of the ordinances of the gospel. Passing over the consi- 
derations, then, which, though too prevalent and influential in 
these hypocritical and infidel times, we are unwilling even for 
a moment to believe, to form the least part, or to modify in the 
smallest degree, the least feature of the intentions which you 
have had in calling me to break the bread of life amongst 
you; we shall specify a few of the outlines of thought, which 
some may be apt to misunderstand, but which, however, in our 
views, distinguish and mark the very intent of the invitation 
which you have sent me. 

I remark, then, first, that I believe I am sent for to reprove 
and discountenance error. The preservation of truth in the 
church is a duty of primary obligation, whether we consider its 
relation to the present's welfare, or its inestimable utility to the 
generations that are to succeed. Error springs from the limited 
views of mankind, has no foundation in the general order of the 
universe, and will never in itself, by the God of perfection and 
truth, be made subservient to an useful purpose. Truth in the 
moral, is correspondent to order in the natural arrangement of 
things : and as the perfection, and indeed character of the ma- 
terial universe, arise from the harmony of its exquisite relations, 
80 in the moral world, truth hath all its foundation in the quali- 
ties and relations of moral and intellectual beings : and error 
must,in the latter case, be analagous to it, and equally pernicious 
with disorder in the former. As soon may we think to behold 
the darkness of night serve the purposes of day; as soon may 
we think to behold our world leaving its orbit, and forgetting 
its duty of summer and winter, of seed-time and harvest, and 
thus contributing more than ever to the felicity and comfort of 
the millions of its inhabitants ; as soon may we think to see all 
the stars of night blotted out to give us, by the void abyss of 
ether, an amazing idea of the wisdom and glory of their Crea- 
tor, as we can expect, that error will promote an useful design, 
Or fail to mar the harmony and order of truth. 

2* 



14 



DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 



If error, however, be of this baneful tendency, with what 
exertions should it be opposed and discountenanced, by the 
ministers of the gospel, whose office is appointed the shield 
of immortal souls, and the watchful defence against every ar- 
row of destruction? Even the smallest growth of error should 
be exposed and broken down, with that zeal, with which the 
careful householder would endeavor to extinguish the small 
unfavorable spark of fire, which threatens to break out imme- 
diately into a devouring flame. For, says our Saviour, speaking 
of this subject, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. Some 
are of opinion that a teacher of truth may permit, without injury 
to the cause of religion, veniable mistakes, as they term them, 
to be professed and maintained at pleasure; but our concep- 
tions are, that whilst the servant of the Lord, as Paul exhorts 
bis son Timothy, is not to strive, but to be gentle to all men, in 
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, he is not to 
fail, in this meek spirit, to expostulate with every one who, un- 
der his care, has embraced and propagates the most plausible, 
and apparently least hurtful error. This minister of the gospel 
may be mistaken in many instances himself, and may be hesi- 
tating in many more ; but whilst he attends to his duty in seek- 
ing that the Lord would make darkness light before him, and 
crooked things straight, he must not neglect to hold fast what 
he hath already. On the supposition that erroneous tenets 
were not, in meekness indeed, and in a consistency with the 
character of the messenger of peace, to be opposed and sup- 
pressed, what, considering the noxious tendencies of error and 
its opposition to the order of truth, would be the consequences 
i ) which it might ultimately lead? This destructive pestilence, 
appearing in its inimical operations to the majesty of truth,like an 
imperceptible deadly seed of a malignant fever, might first work, 
according to that unhappy quality of it, which our Saviour hath 
exemplified by the little leaven which leaveneth the whole lump, 
till it would destroy the whole soul in which it originated ; 
then spread in the atmosphere of conversation and discourse 



HEARER OP THE GOSPEL. 



15 



among his associates; then widen with their connexions and 
relations to other men, till the error darkened an extensive 
region, and the following generation of mankind had the poison 
of death put into their cup, from their fathers, instead of the 
waters of life . What father would thus give the stone that 
hath no nourishment to his children, asking the bread of life? 
What guardian of the interests of a people would thus bequeath 
to them a scorpion, as they, in extensive nations and commu- 
nities, prayed for their rightful provisions. — On the administra- 
tors of truth there are, from the honor of the majesty of recti- 
tude itself, from the relation which their office bears to the 
welfare of the souls of those to whom their instructions are 
tendered, from the necessity of transmitting to future genera- 
tions the truths which Providence has entrusted to their pro- 
tection, and from the consideration of the increasiug contami- 
nations of error, obligations to watch against every appearance 
of it, and to endeavor to eradicate every scion of it, threaten- 
ing to strike its roots deeper and to gather strength in the erring 
human mind. I know, times are foretold to arrive, when men 
will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall 
heap up to themselves teachers having itching ears ; and they 
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned 
unto fables ; but as the same inspired writer adds, we must 
watch in all things ; endure afflictions, do the Work of an evan- 
gelist, make full proof of our ministry. 

I observe, secondly, That I believe I am sent for to declare 
to you the doctrine of salvation with plainness and precision* 
We find, in the perusal of some authors, an indecision of opin- 
ion even on the most momentous and prominent topics in the 
system of religion. A timidity of giving offence to particular 
persons, or a carelessness about precision in the doctrinal de- 
partment of godliness, has led some men to blend into one 
promiscuous confusion the most distinct views in theology. 
That doctrine which appends eternal life to the terms of our 
faith, and the merits of our sincere endeavors, has been so pal- 



16 



DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 



Hated with excuses, and mended by favorable constructions, 
that, using similar accommodating explanations with the doc- 
trine of salvation by free grace, they have concluded, that the 
one is very nearly allied to the other, and may, according to the 
choice of different persons, be received for it. But this is that 
indistinct sound which the apostle supposes may be given, and 
respecting which he asks, Who can by it prepare himself for 
the battle? And even things without life, says he, giving 
sound, whether pipe, or harp, except they give a distinction in 
the sound, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? for 
if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare him- 
self to the battle? 1 Cor. 16:7, 8. 

We have already remarked that truth springs from the foun- 
tain of unalterable rectitude ; and it may now be added, that 
though its light issues in innumerable rays, these are all in 
straight lines, and they will not, in a single instance, form an 
accommodating winding throughout the whole region which 
they illuminate. Sooner may we think to see pure oil mix 
with water and incorporate with its substance, than we can 
expect to perceive truth descending to mix for useful purposes 
with error. That ingenuity which shines so brilliantly in the 
explanatory and adjusting compositions of those refining geni- 
uses, who trim along between the borders of evangelical and 
legal doctrine, so artfully, and so pleasingly to many, may be 
displayed a thousand times more brightly ; but still all the 
exertions which could be made, and all the coloring which 
ambiguous language could impose to beguile, would not, in 
the least, really elevate the baseness of the one to the first- 
born excellence of the other. Truth is like ancient Jerusalem, 
established on a rock ,• and all those who would worship ac- 
ceptably under its sanctuary, and by its light, must, from every 
quarter, go up to the temple where this shekinah, this divine 
brightness itself shines. To the law and to the testimony ; if 
ye speak not according to it, it is because there is no light 

m you. 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



17 



If truth voluntarily recognizes no accommodating sympa- 
thies, the necessity of adhering to it without deviation is more 
apparent still, from the consideration that it is often involunta- 
rily pressed into relations and services where it loses its charac- 
ter and usefulness. You know two armies may contain many 
equally choice spirits, dressed in the same uniform, and accou- 
tred with the same weapons ; but that one alone is reckoned 
under complete array, that has its banners displayed, and whose 
attitude looks to the great object of all their movements and 
operations. In that view of doctrine, then, which would make 
two varying systems nearly meet and embrace one another, 
there may be a great many important truths detailed by the 
author of such a scheme, and, independently of their present 
relations, they may be pearls of inestimable value; but as they 
stand obedient and subservient ministers to his system of dis- 
order and vanity, to which his prejudice or ignorance is bend- 
ing all the materials which his power can arrange, these bright 
and lively appearances lose their true character, and receive 
justly no other designation than what his tyranny and control 
over them impose.— Yes, not only is plainness and precision 
in the preaching of the gospel indispensable from the inflexi- 
bility of truth; but this is equally necessary, because, where 
many truths are posted, and while they abstractedly maintain 
their true character, the assemblage and attitude of them pre- 
sent them as disorder and error. Were, therefore, the practice 
of the ministry of the word, which is now enlisted into your 
most solemn service and sworn by the oath of its ordination to 
faithfulness amongst you, to neglect to lead you to the truth 
where she stands and ought to be viewed alone in her separate 
existence; were I not to tear from their unnatural stations the 
truths that have been artfully blended into systems of error, 
and exposing their coverings, show you the precious jewels in 
their native worth and brightness ; and moreover endeavor to 
arrange them according to their respective places in the great 
casket of heavenly doctrine, would not you declare that 1 am 



18 



DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 



breaking engagements with you, and that I could not escape 
the vengeance of the Lord? You know it is written, He that 
hath a dream let him tell a dream; and he tliat hath my word 
let him speak my word faithfully : for what is the chaff to the 
wheat, saith the Lord ? It is truth, truth elevated above collu- 
sion; truth torn from the bosoms of artifice and false opinions; 
and presented, as far as can be, in all the grace and majesty of 
her various members, that the minister of the gospel should 
endeavor to preach, how disagreeable soever some of its parts 
to prejudiced and misinformed minds may be. You justly 
expect, that by patience and study, by prayer and meditation, 
I am to endeavor to buy the possession of the truth; and then 
never carelessly to baiter it for falsehood, or sell it for the spe- 
cious appearances of error. 

I observe, thirdly, That I believe I am sent for to declare 
the whole truth unto you. Shun not, saith the apostle, to 
declare the whole counsel of God. Some men have hesitated 
about the propriety of preaching many truths that are clearly 
revealed, and acknowledged to be expressly taught in the 
volume of inspiration. They doubt the safety of declaring to 
men, what God himself hath declared, and what he hath made 
it their duty to know and believe. 

Remembering, however, that abstruse and mysterious sub- 
jects must be treated with caution, and mysteries themselves 
bandied with that touch of reverence, which will pay a respect 
to the secrets which they infold, without the impiety of daring 
to disclose them, we hold, that it is the duty of a gospel minis- 
try to bring every subject, which is contained within the com- 
prehension of revelation, into that series of instructions which 
may edify the church of Christ. Is there any doctrine taught 
in inspiration which will not be for the benefit of those who 
are acquainted with it; either in giving them a knowledge of 
the glorious character of Jehovah, or in directing their homage, 
or their practice in the world, or in enabling them to refute the 
cavils and sophistry of those who may attack the principles 



HEARER OE THE GOSPEL 19 

of their belief? A clear, candid, and scriptural statement of 
the most abstruse points of religion, has, from the considera- 
tion that they are, like the inexplicable parts of nature, what 
contain most of the divinity within them, a tendency to give 
os the most august view of God's revealed character ; and if 
they are truths, this is the only way by which the minds of 
those who profess their belief of them, can, in these instances 
which will be most readily attacked, be qualified to give a 
reason of the hope that is in them. 

If, for instance, the propriety of stating cautiously the doc- 
trine of the divine purposes, — particularly as they respect the 
actions and fixed condition of God's rational and dependent 
creatures, — were bitterly denied, what degradation to the di- 
vine prescience, which can foresee events as absolutely certain 
only, would ensue, and what a baseless fabric is the whole 
building of evangelical truth thus left in the mind of every 
hearer of the gospel ? The doctrines of revelation are, indeed,, 
in many instances, deep waters in which the sacred student 
will have to wade with great hazard of endangering the sta- 
bility and steadfastness of his step; yea, in many instances, 
he must halt in his preparations, and with a hand lifted up to 
heaven, put forward his foot with the deep caution of review 
after review amidst the sea of his subject, which is like to 
overwhelm his thoughts ; but still he must not cease to go 
backward and forward to find out the mind of the Lord, and 
what of divine knowledge is discovered to himself, is not 
given unto him only, but to them who hear the word at his 
mouth. The treasure of truth, you know, it is said, is put 
into an earthen vessel, that the power thereof may appear not 
to be of man, but of God ; and its ministry, as Paul adds, must 
say, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and 
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. There may be some 
precepts, the difficulty to show to the satisfaction of some 
minds the reasonableness of which, would be no less a dis- 



20 DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 

suasive from touching upon the subject, than the groundless 
offence which, by the thoughtless, may be taken at the attempt 
to elucidate the subject of their dislike; there may be some 
threatenings, the harshness of whose denunciation creates the 
cold sweat of appalement ; there may be some truths of the 
gospel at which the impious will spurn, and to which their 
opponents will start a thousand plausible and puzzling objec- 
tions ; there may be some promises, which the believer may be 
anxious to hear presented in their proper connexions, and the 
hand of the speaker unable to present them, without the utmost 
pains and solicitous preparation, in such relations; there may 
be some delicate characters to draw, where a blot even from 
an unskilful pencil, would wound a saint of the living God; 
and there may be some nice distinctions to form, where an 
error on the one side, or the other, would be either bartering 
the precious truths of Jehovah for the errors and vices of men, 
or giving the latter a preference to the former: — But still, it 
must be remembered, that the law and gospel of Christ must 
be preached ; that the character of the saint, and of the sinner, 
must be drawn, and that not a flattering error, though it should 
adhere to it, like alloy to the precious metals, but which must 
be separated from truth. For all scripture is given by inspira- 
tion of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for cor- 
rection, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to all good works. 1 
Tim. 3:16,17. 

Behold, my brethren, from the observations already made, 
what important duties draw daily upon the stock of time, in- 
dustry, and faithfulness of him, whom you have called to the 
inspection over you : — and permit it now to be added, as 
a consideration enhancing the duties of his station, that 
the suppression of error, the definite declaration of the 
truth, and the entire presentment of it, must always be gone 
through, with that genius and spirit, which, whilst it is 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 2 1 

hoped that your minds will be daily advancing in the know- 
ledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, will yet create nothing of 
that uncharitable bigotry and aptitude to separation and 
schism, which operate so prevalently in our day, and into an 
excuse for which an unguarded practice on the foregoing 
principles might be so apt to inflame the unwary. I have 
enumerated and endeavored to illustrate the upright rules 
which ought to guide a teacher of immortal souls, and a stew- 
ard of the mysteries of God; but this has been done as I view- 
ed myself merely as an ambassador, with the messages of 
Jesus in my ministrations as the blessings of the gospel to be 
bestowed upon your immortal spirits. And the law cf that 
charity which, in this militant and imperfect state of Zion, must 
move under some degree of both " mixture and error,'" 1 with 
respect to christian fellowship, " even in the purest churches," 
founds a distinct and arduous branch of duty, wirch, J own, 
it will be indispensable in me always to maintain. Though I 
speak with die tongues of men and cf angels and have not 
charity, T am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling symbal. 

But I cbserve, fourthly, That I believe I am sent for to dis- 
courage and reprove sin. The dispensation cf the c-csrel ad- 
dresses men on the supposition that they are sinners - and the- 
manifestation of the whole mercy cf God, in the appoin-ment 
of his eternal and only he?s) en Son to he or.r mediator, rnd 
in the erection of a church upon earth, is that sin Blight be 
effectually reproved and d?.s'r y-eah-and r-Y 3 sinne* stripped of 
his character, eternally 3 ve<$. " For this purpose " savs A he 



destroy the works cf the devil." Gladly will a melt man 
hear the sweet sound cf the gospel, which premises to.thei 
life, and the forgiveness of all their trespv.sse?;, and will l ea 
too, with admiration and de)%ht its doctrines explained i 
them, who, however, feel deeply offended when their sins ai 
smartly reproved, and when it is threatened that, unless he 
make a sacrifice of their unworthy attachment io this or ti 
3 



22 DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 

other prevalent lust or passion, they never shall experience the „ 
blessings which the gospel bestows. There are, says our Sa- [} 
viour, in the parable of the sower, some who receive the wordj^ 
with joy; but by and by when persecution or tribulation be-L 
cause of the word ariseth, they are offended. But the station!,, 
you see, of the gospel minister, is not occupied correspon^. 
dently to the original design itself of the gospel, nor, let me add. . 
to the example of all the sacred penmen; nor to the very lan- 
guage which defines and points to the end of his office, unless 
he expose ana reprove sin in every d istinction of character, an< 
under all the unamiable aspects it may assume. Ahead} 
having pointed out the primary intention of that dispensatior 
of grace under which we happily live, I direct your attention 
to the voice of the prophets. They proclaim the sins of th< 
children of Israel under every variety of language, and by even 
similitude whose pointed reproof may expose the guilty. Th< 
im i*v f jj ie i ieru -t the transgression of the thoughts, ant 
|he sms cl the practice, are all laid open, by. the expressive 
1 vwy-ua^e of prduhets crying aloud and sparing not: showing 
'(he Lord's ueople their transgressions, and the house of Jaco)| 
, 1 ; r sm 'jpnis eo^l* \ : ! eart exclaims Isaiali, is waxed gross 
arvd tVir ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they hav 
Closed- and pt?ttrn.a his fvuer to eccb cf the gray hairs -of hi 
renroh?' ; on Rosea " : hus awal-ens ns: The Lord hath a centre 
„ , (, (j s e ; v - bitarits of the land, because there is-n 
t . . . . IS . i | ^ f „o God in the land: by swea? 



Tin 
jud< 
pret 



:od toucheth bl~ed.. Indeea tl 
- in \h< mseivep andeitidl 

# - iVncle ofctftut ex hortation wltik 
{■<<* ■ entile? expressly on the sut 
it- ---Ms Paul to his beloved so 
' Lord Jesus Christ, who slia 
.d, at. his appearing and kmgdon 
in season and out cf season. r( 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 

11 ' rove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine. 
( What, advantage could the proclaiming of the good news of the 
gospel, which will instil their blessings into the heart of the 
Penitent only, serve, if we do not prepare the way, by striking 
'■.onviction into the' conscience, and by opening a door of ad- 
mission into the shut heart, for these momentous concerns? 
i ll hau minister who will permit a single viohtion of the divine 
Ww to entwine itself around the heart of a single member of 
5 he church under his care, without reproving it, and stretching 
* or th his h-wid to tear it off, whether the person be high or low, 
'!, ich or poor, friend or foe, is not consulting this man's true 
teterefct — is not offering him the gre.it blessing of salvation, 
'llllong with the inculcation of that holiness, without which no 
jioan cm see the Lord. As soon may we think to see a beau- 
tiful snd stable budding erected on the tottering and ragged 
11 oins of an ancient foundation, as we can reasonably hope, that 
! ' he most emphatic-id display of the doctrines of the gospel, 
'".all be of avail to the person whose sins call for reproof and 
Chastisement, hut which do not receive them. 
1 Brethren, you have chosen the ministry of holiness, that 
5 hrpugh its instrumentality, you may, at las'", be presented 
'•'vvithout. spot, or blemish, or any such thing, before God. Et 
must not, therefore, be taken amiss, when I state, that this min- 
ster of Jesus, if he wishes to discharge his duty, and to escape 
.he divine vengeance, requiring, in awful punishment, the blood 
' )f the lost, members of his congregation at his hand, must, 
vithout respect, of persons, or without a more tender regard to 
Teeling than an adherence to truth, reprove, with the meekness, 
steadfastness, and edge of scripture example, the impiety of 
!>e ungodlv, the crUnes of the vicious, the delinquencies of 
he backsliding, the rash steps of the unwary, — the follies of 
he young, yea, even the failures of old age. Oh thou son of 
! man, t have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: 
P therefore, thou shalt hear the word at my mouth and warn them 
' from me. When } say unto the wicked ; O yvicked man, thou 



24 DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 

shalt surely die: if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked 
from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but 
his blood will 1 require at thine hand : Nevertheless if thou 
warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn 
from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast deli- 
vered thy soul. 

I observe, fifthly, That I believe I am sent for to encourage 
and promote holiness amongst you. Subserviently to this all 
the preceding observations have been made. The refutation 
of error clears the foundation on which the building of h .'iness 
may be erected; the precise and definite View of the truth se- 
lects the proper materials; the full exhibition of it collects 
them all together; and the suppression of iniquity correcls 
every negligent and irregular hand that is engaged in laying 
them. 

This duty of rearing you a holy nation, a peculiar people, 
requires a review of the truth which has been doclrinaliy pre- 
ss ed, and a gathering of the lines of it into a focus that 
\v • ' form a vi^id and living image of him from whom they 
originally shine. We will not disguise the duty, because 
of the difficulty which may be experienced in its accomplish- 
ment, of arranging revelation into the precepts of its law, the 
light of its doctrines, the grace of its promises, and the exem- 
plars of its characters, so as to bung it on to your awakened 
attention a great practical system, which you are to put on as 
the garment of your salvation. I believe it my duty to announce 
the law in all its direction, its rewards, and ils terrors, that it 
may erect its thione in the judgment, and sway its sceptre 
over the conscience; — I believe it my duty to arrange the doc- 
trines of scripture and present them in all their excellence, that 
your faith may feel its foundation, and your love may be kin- 
dled at the torch of divine mercy; — I believe it my duty to pro- 
claim the promises in all their freedom and suitableness, that 
whilst you live in faith and love, it may not be to yourselves, 
but to him who loved you and gave himself for you; — and I 



HEARER OT THE GOSPE1,. 



25 



believe it my duty to place you along side of the saints of reve- 
lation, that you may be excited to perseverence and com- 
forted by their example. Oh! that I could collect these rays 
of divine truth; and that then the spirit of God, bearing them 
from the forms of ministration, would pencil them on your 
understanding, till you be transformed in the renewing of your 
minds; that he would direct this image of the eternal to look 
in faith, like the form of the sun from the placid stream, al- 
ways to himself the primary source; that he would enliven 
them into that flame of love that might resemble that operating 
though imperceptible transcript throughout our globe, of the 
fountain of heat as well as of light; and that he would reflect 
and diffuse this illuminating and warming principle through 
all the fields of obedience, that being thus of the new creation 
of God, you may shine, when they themselves are blotted out, 
like the stars in the firmament, for ever and ever, 

Leading him to bend all his exertions to this great and dif- 
ficult object of his office, the minister of the gospel has, indeed, 
many powerful inducements. The momentous concerns which 
the office itself displays; the everlasting love of God, the atone- 
ment of his only begotten Son, the operations of the Holy 
Spirit, and God's authority binding all these to the duty of 
our ministry, are instigations which must be felt. The worth, 
too, of those immortal souls to which our ministrations are 
directed ; their character as the noblest piece of divine forma- 
tion on earth; the truth that as rational and reflecting agents 
they are capable of enduring pain or of enjoying happiness, 
throughout all eternity; the fact that all the dispensations of 
God's providence take place that circumstances may be ar- 
ranged that these immortal spirits might be purified and saved; 
the erection of the grand fabric of the church, purely that they 
might be accommodated, as spiritual heirs of heaven ; and the 
institution of a gospel ministry in this great house, merely 
that all the prophets and apostles, and pastors of every vge, 
might own themselves their servants for Jesus' sake — these 

3* 



26 



DUTIES OF THE PREACH EH AND 



all preach the necessity of encouraging and promoting holiness 
amongst you. And the reward which, whilst we look not at 
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, 
is set before us — the declarations of our Saviour whilst not 
exclusively, yet prominently addressed to the ministers of the 
word: Blessed are ye when men revile you, and perse- 
cute you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for 
my sake; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your 
reward in heaven ; — they shall shine as the stars in the firma- 
ment for ever and ever; — these also clap their hands before us, 
and cry, go on and prosper. 

But whilst all these things are felt, esteemed, and surveyed, 
yet, as I view my station, and again further view it, I acknow- 
ledge my fears increase in relation to the great end of it that 
is now under consideration. My brethren, must there be any 
thing more done by the minister of Christ to promote and en- 
courage holiness than a suppression of error, a candid and full 
statement of truth, — a reproof of transgression, and a concen- 
tration of all these principles into a line of promising operation 
towards holiness? We own that the difficult task of a fair, 
clear, and full statement of all instructing and improving know- 
ledge might be performed ; and yet were the speaker to forget 
to" set the first example of holiness enjoined by his instructions, 
far, far would this man be from promoting the hallowed end 
of his office. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of this- 
tles? To purity of doctrine, and the edging of it to discern 
the thoughts and the intents of your hearts, I must afford that 
pattern which is enjoined in that peculiar precept, not to walk 
disorderly, but for an example to the flock. — And whilst I 
rejoice to own that I am called to this honorable and highly 
accountable station, and hope through that grace which is 
sufficient for me, to be enabled in some becoming measure, 
not to disappoint the invitation which this part of God's flock 
has sent me, I must intimate that you must not be discouraged 
from pressing forward to perfection, though you may not per- 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



27 



ceive, in this militant state, in him who should always lead 
you, that spotless perfection which will be bestowed upon 
none of us, till a higher state of existence bestow it. Far be 
it from a minister of holiness to seek to palliate his faults 
which are so influential, before they take place; but the inti- 
mation may be of importance, when I reflect on the mournful 
fall of a David, of a Noah a preacher of righteousness, of a Job 
a perfect and an upright man, and of a Peter the most zealous 
apostle of our Lord, and consider mine own weakness for the 
singular and distinguished station to which I am now appoint- 
ed. Oh ! that these promises were fulfilled in the experience 
of him who is to direct you, ct I will make darkness light before 
thee, and crooked things straight; these things will 1 do unto 
thee, and not forsake thee. Fear not, for I have called thee by 
my name, thou art mine; when thou passest through the waters 
I will be with thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou 
shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." 
— I hope that I will be enabled , by an exhibition of the true 
rules and motives of it, and discrimination from every counter- 
feit that would imitate it, to present holiness, in its laws and 
principles, before you, both by an attention to them in the 
exercises of the pulpit, and in the offices of ecclesiastical juris- 
diction : — and my warmest prayer is, that the seed which is 
sown may take deep root, both in your hearts and in mine 
own, that the connexion which is now formed in the Lord, 
may not be in vain, but that we may grow up as trees of righ- 
teousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. 

The second head of our method was, To give you some di- 
rections upon the view which I have of your invitation, in 
regard to the exercises, which, on your part, originate from the 
connexion which is now formed. When Cornelius had heard 
Peter's question, and told him the reason why he had sent for 
him, he adds, verse thirty-third, " Now, therefore, we are all 
here present before God, to hear all things that are command- 



28 



DUTIES OF TIIE PREACHER AND 



ed thee of God." There are no duties to be performed, nor 
privileges to be enjoyed, on the one hand, but which occasion 
obligations and correspondent exercises on the other. 

On this part of our subject, I observe, first, That you are to 
be careful to put a proper estimate upon a gospel ministry. 
Let a man, says the apostle Paul, so account of us, as of the 
ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 
Not a few have formed very degrading notions of the office 
which clothes the minister of the gospel, and which leads him, 
correspondently to the expectations of the more reflecting 
and serious, through a variety of duties, and to a station the 
most important. He is frequently viewed, even in the most 
solemn exercises of his office, reduced to the low rank of those 
that relate their own opinion only, and tell the truths which 
they utter without the investiture of an authority that may 
enforce the belief and practice of them. The men who wear 
this character, may, in many instances, be little deserving in- 
deed either of respect or obedience from others; yea, they may 
be really the gilded offscourings of all things, daily assuming 
more of their detested hue, reprobate silver, which , in passing 
through the furnace of public experience, is to be rejected and 
forever cast away; but the office itself, and as becomingly 
supported, is what presents him who bears it in the room of 
Christ before you, and brings in his own person the Saviour 
of the world, and administrator of life and death, to teach and 
instruct you . " Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ," 
Bays Paul, "as though Christ did beseech you by us; we pray 
you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." A minister 
at a foreign court presents in representation, the majesty of the 
sovereign who has deputed him ; and acts as if the whole 
sovereignty of that country from which he came were present, 
pleading and adjusting its own concerns ; and the ambassadors 
of Christ, the great king and head of his church, walk, in all 
the duties of their office, an example of an equally strict and 
sacred representation. As an official messenger cannot be 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



29 



despised without contemning the sovereignty of that power 
which delegated him, nor can 'iave his claims acknowledged, 
without doing justice to the desires and wishes of the countiy 
which all speak in him; so the messenger of Jesus, while he 
presenfs in due form, and with suitable views of his station, 
the intentions and will of his great sovereign, cannot be either 
rejected or accepted wilhout in reference to him a choice of 
this alternative. He, saith our Saviour, that heareth youhear- 
etli me, and lie that despiseth you despiseth me, and he that 
despiseth me, despiseth him that, sent me. 

I make ihese observations with the intention of preparing 
you by the duty of just esteem, for liie execution of these 
other duties which, on your part, could not, in relation unlo 
the new connexion in which this day rinds us, be performed, 
without such a view of the character of the ministers of the 
sancluary as I have presently set before you. Destitute of this 
correct conception of the ministerial office, you might always 
advance to the ordinances of grace and withdraw from them, 
without ever perceiving that point of authority that sanctifies 
and solemnizes them; and so might treat the whole ritual of 
the temple of the most High, with that indifference of mi: d 
and ease of conscience, with which you hear and dismiss the 
opinions of men, whom accident may make your companions, 
and who in no sense have ties of authority over you. But were 
the Saviour of mankind, the administrator of all things, and 
the judge of the world, to descend from his glorious throne in 
heaven, to command your obedience to that gospel which you 
have received for his, to lay down your duty before you, to 
press you forward through its various departments, would not 
you believe that in his commands and threatenings, his pro- 
mises and exhortations, it behooved you to hear his voice, and 
to remember Ihe divine instructions which it distils into your 
ears? It is not the arrogance of the preacher, it is not- igno- 
rance of the charter by which he holds his commission, that 
makes him assert, that Jesus has devolved this authority, as 



30 DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 

his will is exhibited in a ministry of reconciliation, upon the 
oftice which this preacher supports. And I will give unto 
thee, saith Jesus himself, the keys of the kingdom of heaven; 
and whatsoever thou shah bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven, and whatsoever thou strait loose on earth shall be 
loosed in heaven. — Not that the ministers of truth have a 
discretionary power to decide thus upon the states of men; 
or that they can absolutely make the application of their 
sentence to distinguish eternally the conditions of immortal 
souls; for in this sense, none can forgive sins but he who 
can try the heart and reins. But in their administrations of 
the law and doctrines of the unerring word of revelation, 
they can pronounce that sentence on the smner, whose crimes 
clearly manifest his impenitence, which, if the grace of Cod 
aber not his state, will be an echo to his tremendous av aid 
at last, and a formal presage of it — and they can bestow that 
titled encouragement upon the saint, whose light shines before 
his conscience and before men, that, on their ministerial right 
to do so, will be an earnest of his blessed sentence hereafter. 

We know that these words of our Saviour, " 1 will give on- 
to thee the keys of the kingdom-of heaven, and whatsoever 
thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and wha f so- 
ever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven, " have 
prominently a respect unto the ambassadors of Christ, as they 
are a divinely selected and qualified jury to sit in courts of 
ecclesiastical order. Sanctified by the spirit of judgment, and 
crowned with the authority of the majesty of their great lie 
the ministers of the gospel do afford us here a most striking 
view of their own highly responsible, and yet authoritative 
representation; and show us that along the lines of their rela- 
tions their upright deeds ascend to heaven and are there rati- 
fied and recorded. But these ministers of Christ, separated in 
their individual capacity among the societies of the faithful, 
also proceed in the robes of their office proclaiming the mes- 
sage of their great King, — he that believeth shall be saved, and 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. SI 

he that believeth not shall be damned. Were a blasphemer, 
long noted for his impiety; blackening, too, daily, in all the 
foul offspring of such a parent, to enter into one of these as- 
semblies; were he to court attention by the smile of contempt, 
the grin of ridicule, the attitudes of mockery, and all the name- 
less movements that are most congenial to his heart; — were this 
unhappy creature ever to appear in our assembly, is there not 
a power to single him out, to carry to him the messages of heav- 
en, and on the last demonstrations cf his obviously hardened 
impenitence to pronounce k ' When we are gathered together," 
anathema maranatha ? 

Bat I observe, secondly, That you are to be careful to meet 
the minister of the gospel with such suit able preparation as you 
; have ground io expect that his labors shall be profitable 
to you . It is an incorrect view of the means by which the 
spiritual interests of his flock are to be promoted, to hold that 
all the administrations of the regularly called and qualified 
servant of the Lord, will be succesiful, or even of promising 
influence, without an attention on your part to personal reli- 
gion. The ministry of the word does not work like the chisel 
upon the sione, or like the hammer upon the anvil, where ex- 
tern operations only, produce all the desired effects ; but it 
resembles more the labors of the husbandman who commits 
eed to tii:; earth which has many co-operating and active 
principles, that benignly receive and nourish, night and day, 
v : .; has been entrusted to its improvement. Go view the 
seed which has wandered from the hand of the sower, upon^ 
v - 1 ccs or ti e surface of the naked rock, where the pow- 
eus of vegetation do not operate; and beholding how soon it 
withers unci dies, learn hence the inefficacy of the ministry, 
of the word without principles of operation in your minds in- 
viting to a hopeful reception of it. There may be cast to the 
station of the ambassador of Jesus, an eye that at once recog- 
nizes all the marks of its spiritual authority ; and there may 



32 DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 

be lent an ear which equally readily attends to the truths 
which it proclaims; but unless there are the eftects of a frame 
warmed and enlivened by the exercises of private preparation, 
it is not to be expected that these views and perceptions will 
identify themselves with our nature, and swell the dimensions 
of our spiritual stature. On the other hand, that ultimate pow- 
er and supreme authority, which hath suited the means to the 
end, demolishes these perceptions, and lets them break away, 
baseless visions, without a wreck behind,— That seeing they 
may see, says God, and not perceive, and hearing they may 
hear and not understand. Mark 4:12. It is highly consis- 
tent with the free offer of the gospel, and its invitations to 
come and buy the wine and milk of salvation without money 
and without price, thus to describe the christian's path 
of duty to you: for I am not speaking of the merciful 
offer of the gospel to sinners; but of the prayers and 
alms of them whose devotion and charity come up for a me- 
morial before God. My object is to direct you through the 
secret chambers of preparation, where the christian ought to 
dress himself every day before he appear in the temple of the 
great God. 

It is suspected that the momentous duties on which we have 
our eye, are, in general, by far too little thought of by many, 
when desiring that one may be appointed to break the bread 
of life amongst them. On you of this congregation is now 
particularly binding that exercise which, we are permitted to 
natter ourselves, has been no less salutary in its performance 
in time past, than the prospect of it is, we hope, pleasing to 
you now — of enriching your understandings with a know- 
ledge from themselves of the scriptures. Of the dune? in 
which you will be conjointly engaged with your pastor, none 
is of simpler complexion, than what partakes of the solemn 
nature and relations of divine worship. In our supplications 
and praise, your wishes and desires, your extacies and adora- 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 33 

rations, are mine, and mine yours ; and our prayer and anthem 
ascend to the throne of him who commands us to ask for things 
agreeable to his will, and to sing with grace and melody in the 
heart. And in the preaching of the gospel, whilst I, as the 
ambassador of Christ, enforce and carry home to your con* 
sciences the law, spread out and place before your eye the 
truths of the gospel itself, and cluster them and pour on 
your heads the anointing of the promises; you attend to 
these as the law, and gospel, and promises of Christ; and this 
not so much with the design of receiving instruction, as of re- 
viewing what truths are already known, of surveying their 
mighty importance, and of being thus warmed and enlivened 
by the spirit of truth. Preaching is chiefly a watering of God's 
vineyard, where the plants are already rooted and need only 
the influences of heaven, the dews and rain, to nourish and 
bring them forward, to perfection. Behold, then, the God of 
perfection accepting of our prayers and praises only when 
they are directed by the light of his word, and remember that, 
the instructive part of our exercises, the preaching of the gos- 
pel, has more of the intention of cultivating holy dispositions 
and of solemnizing our minds as worshippers in the temple of 
God, than of the communication of instruction to the under- 
standing, and the duty of private preparation by deep research- 
es into the word of revelation, must be acknowledged. Search 
the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
they are they, says Christ, that testify of me. This habit ad- 
vantageously cultivated will enable you to correct in your wor- 
ship an incorrect sentence which at times may drop unwarily 
from the mouth of him who leads your devotions; for none of 
us are elevated above imperfections : or it may enable you to 
perceive what is the scriptural idea which his words would con- 
vey, were they arranged precisely in that construction, which, 
in some instances, he may rather aim at, than accurately form. 
The Bereans are placed on a high eminence in revelation, 
because, though immediately instructed by an inspired 
4 



34 



DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 



apostle, they yet searched the scriptures whether these things 

were so. 

But, my brethren, that the ordinance of a gospel ministry 
now enjoyed by you may have its full effect, I must direct you 
to an improvement of your knowledge by bowing the knee in 
prayer, both for yourselves and your minister, when engaged 
in the public ordinances of the gospel. God alone can rear 
the building of Zion either in the church at large, or in the 
hearts of her members; and our entreaties at the throne of 
his grace should be, " where two or three are met together in 
thy name, be thou in the midst of them to do them good." Is 
there not a great obligation springing from their authority, and 
a great encouragement arising from the vast condescension 
which they display, as, adverting to the connexion instituted 
by God between means and ends, we read these commanding 
and authoritative words of his own — " put me in remembrance?" 
Were the minister of the gospel on the one hand to be left by 
God shorn of the blessings and assistances which, through the 
importunities of prayer alone, we have ground to expect, how 
could he appear copiously furnished with the word of truth — 
prepared to give each his portion in due season, and this with 
that perspicuity and promptitude of language which resemble 
the pen of the ready writer: and how could you yourselves 
favor the preaching of the gospel with that attentive ear which 
it so loudly demands, or open for its reception that understand- 
ing heart, which it will so amply fill ? But recall, my brethren, to 
mind, the importance of the ministry of the gospel, and also your 
relation to it; that by this supposition of its being wrong per- 
formed, and ill received, I may awaken your consciences to a 
lively sense of the indispensable need of always bearing both 
your own case, and also mine, to the throne of him, who saith, 
Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye stall find, knock and it 
shall be opened unto you. Can it be foi sot that the preach- 
ing of the gospel challenges your attention to consider the 
choice of eternal life or death, by turning the immediate view . 



HEARER OV THE GOSPEL. 



35 



of your minds to the perception of that truth which, on all oc- 
casions, but particularly as dispensed from the authority which 
clothes the ministers of the gospel, provides a refuge for the 
righteous, and erects an instrument of destruction over the 
heads of the wicked ? See, that 1 have set before you life and 
good, and death and evil : in that I command thee this day to 
love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his 
commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, that thou 
mayest live and multiply ; and the Lord thy God shall bless 
thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine 
heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn 
away and worship other gods and serve them; I denounce un- 
to you this day that ye shall surely perish. This considera- 
tion that the preaching of the gospel will be either the savor 
of life unto life, or of death unto death, taken in connexion 
with the fact that the preparation of the heart is from God 
alone, conveys to your hearing with the highest emphasis, in 
regard unto your pastor, the former, and in regard to both him 
and yourselves, the latter of these inspired exhortations, — - 
Brethren, pray for us, that the word of God may have free 
course and be glorified, — Take the helmet of salvation, and the 
sword of the spirit which is the word of God; praying always 
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching 
thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; 
and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that 1 may 
open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gos- 
pel. Eph. 6:17,18,19. 

But I observe, thirdly, That you are to be solemn and at- 
tentive in the performance of those duties which are dis- 
charged when your minister and you meet, to present your- 
selves in religious services before God, This observation, one 
should think, needs no more to prove and enforce it, than a right 
understanding of the condition to which oui public religious 
ordinances exalt us. What must be the impiety of that mairs 
conduct who either behaves disorderly in the courts of God's 



36 



DUTIES OP THE PREACHER AND 



worship; or who incurs the guilt of drawing near to him with 
the mouth and of honoring him with the lip, whilst the heart 
is removed far from him ? A dependent will not approach his 
earthly superior without an attitude of respect ; the supersti- 
tious will not survey the images of his veneration without the 
emotions of religious awe; the heathen nations cannot enter 
the temples of their idols without their consciences being 
aroused into an anticipation of that dread immortality, which 
their feelings, more than their judgments, predict shall take 
place; and the angels in heaven bow down veiling their faces 
with their wings as they behold.the throne of the Eternal, and 
certainly God must be greatly feared, and had in reverence by 
all his saints. The compliment of visiting the house of God 
with the design only of countenancing the exercises which his 
genuine people support, by a mere appearance, and the stupid 
and wearisome continuance of the body in the consecrated as- 
semblies of the faithful, without the spirit which animates and 
elevates them by the most joyous energies of life, is equally to 
be reprobated and abhorred. I hear the voice of the prophet 
guarding our assemblings, like the angel's flaming sword, the 
tree of life, in the appalling language of assertion and interroga- 
tion: "The sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath sur- 
prised the hypocrite, who among us can dwell with devouring 
fire, who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?" 

Perhaps, indeed, some will plead as an excuse for their in- 
attention, the lifeless and unanimated manner, as well as the 
flimsy and light matter, which, at times, the minister of the 
gospel may manifest before you. It would savor of vanity, 
and mark with utter ignorance of the experience of God's 
servants, were we, christians, to challenge your attention al- 
ways, on account of the excellence of our performances. We 
own that the servant of the Lord often finds his work drag 
heavily with him in his preparations; and not rarely too, when he 
thinks that he has reared the fabric of his discourse in perfec- 
tion, will a -stone slip in the foundation, and overthrow his 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



37 



hopes. The priests, the Lord's ministers mourn, saith the 
prophet, for their field is wasted, their land mourneth. Joel, 
1:3. The Lord has to teach his servants their dependance 
upon him ; and often from them in their ministrations, as well 
as from the christian in his experiences, he hidethhis face and 
they are troubled. Oh! exclaimed the inspired Job, that it 
were with me as in months past, in the days when God pre- 
served me, when his candle shone upon my rread, and 
when by his light I walked through darkness. — The dew 
does not distil with equal copiousness every night in the sea- 
son of dew, the rivers do not always flow with the same 
abundant stream, the fountains do not always pour forth an 
equal birth of waters, the fields do not bring every season the 
same plentiful harvest, the sea waxes and subsides again, the 
moon becomes sickly and black, the sun himself puts on his 
robes of mourning, the temple of Jehovah has been in ruins, 
and the Lamb himself that is in the midst of the throne in 
heaven, was covered by the cold hand of an accursed death, 
and the ministers of righteousness, in this changeable world, 
must experience, in some degree or other, this vicissitude of 
dispensation, to which all nature and the church herself are 
subjected. But is not the scarcity of articles the very con- 
sideration which on that occasion enhances their importance ? 
Consider how attentive the hungry are to collect and preserve 
in the years of famine the equally coarse and scanty provision ; 
consider how the thirsty soul will exult to quaff the grass- 
grown stream from the expiring fountain ; consider how refresh- 
ing is a breath of wind in a sultry day; and consider how joy- 
ful is the sickly beam even of the rising moon to the mid- 
night and bewildered traveller, and, we hope, we have convin- 
ced you, that it is inconsistent with your duty, to despise the 
day, in God's providence, of mourning to us, and of small 
things to you. Moreover, on this subject, I would tell you 
that often the day of our calamity is the time of God's op- 
portunity, for accomplishing the most unexpected and interest- 

4* 



38 DUTIES OF THE PREACHER AND 

ingends by the small voice of the gospel. Jesus himself, who 
spake as never man spake, was yet less successful than any of 
his disciples. God is frequently not in the earthquake of the 
moving orator's voice, nor in the whirlwind of his discourse, 
by which he strikes and carries the passions in a thousand 
directions; but he appears, where he is least expected, in a 
still small unanimated voice. The treasure is often put into a 
weak a^ despised vessel, that its virtue and power may ap- 
pear to be of God shining upon his ordinances, and not on 
man, the mere administrator of them. I thought, says Naa- 
man, he will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the 
name of his God, and strike his hand over the place, and re- 
cover the leper; but, says the prophet, by his messenger only, 
go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come 
again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 

But I observe, lastly, That you are to meditate on the ex- 
ercises in which we have been employed when you retire from 
them, and to implore the divine blessing upon them. Wearied 
of the burden which has hung hear}' upon them during their 
journey through the public services of Zion, careless professors 
of religion go, like the ox loosed from his yoke, to feed on 
the pleasing pastures of amusement and recreation; of idle 
speculations of honor and wealth ; and of aggrandizing pur- 
suits of time ; and they never review a thought that has been 
set before them, nor an expression of adoration in which they 
have joined, nor ask the divine blessing upon them. He also 
that received seed among thorns is he that heareth the word, 
and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches 
choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. Look, however, 
to the tender babe who is abandoned in the desert to all the 
rigors of winter, to the dangers which then and there walk 
unmolested around him, death clothed in a thousand forms; 
and expect to see the helpless infant reared unto the abilities 
of manhood amidst all these dangers, as soon as you can ex- 
pect to entertain a hope, that the tender seed of the word will 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL. 



39 



live manv moments, without even a dew of meditation, or of 
the divine blessing, amidst such worldly pursuits, pleasures, 
and plans, to destroy it. If you are to improve the adminis- 
tration of ordinances with which you are now favored you 
must not. immediately on your withdrawing from public wor- 
ship and duties, bind up the talent that has been entrusted to 
you, and deposit it in the earth of forgetfulness ; but you must 
lend it out to the improving hands of meditation and prayer. 
Men are so little acquainted with the great art of meditation to 
increase their stock of spiritual possessions, that it is difficult 
to lead them through its operations and to point out the many 
advantages to which it is subservient. Meditation on know- 
lege which has once entered the mind, diffuses its influences 
through the affections, and roots it so in the memory, that all 
the changes and gusts of time never can thoroughly overturn it. 
This takes the food which has been immediately administered, 
digests it, like the bile the nourishment of our animal frame; 
sends it in the circulations of its own reflections, like the 
chyle converted into blood into all the parts and cavities of the 
soul; and thus filling the whole intellectual system of man 
with enlivened views, extends and increases his stature. 
We all, says the apostle Paul, with open face beholding as in a 
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, 
from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. — And ought 
any christian to forget that the grace of God which gratifies all 
that expectation that in prayer animates us, and that carries all our 
affections to seize upon the throne of the eternal, is the sole prin- 
ciple of our spiritual life. Paul may plant and Apollos water, 
says the apostle of the Gentiles, but God alone can give the 
increase. They are the benign influences of the holy spirit 
descending like rain upon the mown grass, and like the 
showers that water the earth, that quicken and invigorate the 
exercises of the people cf God. Except the Lord do build the 
house they labor in vain that build it ; except the Lord do 
keep the city the watchmen w-atch in vain. As soon may the 



40 DUTIES OP THE PREACHER AND 

christian acquiesce in the atheistical assertion that this universe 
moves through all its changes and events independently of the 
will of its creator; as soon may he expect to see all the ver- 
dure and enamel of the spring arise, and display their vigor 
and beauty without light or congenial heat, as he dares plume 
himself upon the growth and comeliness of his virtue and holi- 
ness, without the operative and all powerful influences of Go 
blessing. Heirs of the grace of life, I do not miscalculate the 
value of your privileges, any more than I overrate the duty by 
which you are to open the bosom of desire to receive their in- 
valuable communications, when 1 thus point out to you, as the 
herald of divine mercy, the mouth that is to be opened at the 
throne of Jehovah, and the fulness that is to enter by it. For 
God says, as the rain cometh down, and snow from heaven, 
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh 
it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and 
bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth out of my 
mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accom- 
plish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing 
whereto I sent it. Isaiah, 55. 1 will be as the dew to 
Israel, he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as 
Lebanon ; they that dwell under his shadow shall return, they 
afhall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine, the scent thereof 
shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Hos. 14:5 — 7. 

My brethren, I add one remark applicable to all the obser- 
vations I have made : that whilst this preparation is always to 
precede, this attention always to accompany, and this medita- 
tion and prayer always to follow the common administration of 
the ordinances of grace; they are to rise with every striking 
emergency, such as the dispensation of the sacraments, and 
not to be forgot in any of the duties of discipline, examin- 
ation, or visitation. These latter will bring you before the 
minister of God's sanctuary, either, to be immediately in the 
name of Christ, approved or condemned, or to have your pro- 
gress w knowledge and practice estimated, that it may be 



HEARER OP THE GOSPEL. 



41 



transmitted through the instrumentality of your minister, to 
occupy its place in the records of Zion, and to stand there a 
perpetual remembrance of your character in your generation. 
And in proportion to the solemnity of bringing Christ under 
the visible symbols of his death and sacrifice, of laying him be- 
fore you as wounded and bruised for your transgression, and 
as expiring under the hands of an accursed death to wash and 
cleanse you from the stain that omnipotence could not other- 
wise efface, you are to reflect and pray, to call upon all that is 
within you to be stirred up in attention ; and then to reflect 
and pray again, — that you may thus worthily partake of the 
body and blood of the Lord. 

Whose eyes, my brethren, are now upon us ? — The observa- 
tion of the wicked will spitefully descry every failure, either on 
your part or mine, and like an object at a distance in a foggy 
day, this will be magnified by the malign power of their ima- 
gination. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. These 
will think that our imperfections and misimprovements afford 
them a triumph not only over ourselves, but even over that re- 
ligion which we profess. — The eyes of the saints are likewise, 
though with a more friendly aspect, turned towards us. Would 
you wish to hear of their bowels of mercy towards us, to hear 
them saying, like the apostle of the gentiles, ye are our joy and 
crown of rejoicing; would you wish to enlist all their prayers 
and sympathies into your services — you must improve their 
privileges which will make you their brethren in Christ. Where- 
fore I also, says Paul, after I heard of your faith in the Lord 
Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for 
you, making mention of you in my prayers; that, the God of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give unto you 
the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. 
— Invisible angels watch over us, and mark the regularity 
or irregularity, the ardor or indifference, of our religious course. 
He maketh, it is said, his angels spirits and his ministers a 
flame of fire. And God who sitteth upon the circle of the 



DUTIES OP THE PREACHER AND 



heavens and beholdeth the nations as grasshoppers; who 
weigheth the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance ; 
who can toss us before the wind of his displeasure like the 
small dust in the balance, is an awful spectator of our character 
and conduct. A negligent preparation on your part or mine, 
a lame and sickly performance of duty by either of us, and a 
carelessness about what will be the consequences which may 
follow, may escape the inimical inspection of the wicked, the 
pitying observation of the righteous, the keen look, it may be, 
of angels; but throughout the whole exercises, in which, in 
years of conjunct privileges and duty, you and I may be em- 
ployed, in every word that is spoken by me, and in every word 
that is heard by you, God's eye surveys them, and his hand 
marks the qualities of our exercises. The eyes of the Lord 
are in every place beholding the evil and the good . 

Were your pastor left so destitute of that grace in which he 
trusts for all his help, as to fail obviously in all the important 
duties of the station to which he is exalted, what ridicule 
would exulting enemies throw upon us, what embittering mix- 
ture of frowns and condolence would saints pour out; what a 
look of indignation and compassion would those seraphim that 
always behold the face of our father who is in heaven, dare to 
bestow, and what a reproof and severe chastisement from the 
Lord of all must I expect! Were this supposed sin of mine to 
be the sin of impenitence, what, though I might escape in a 
great measure by unworthily purchasing the veil of hypocrisy, 
all the censure and reproof of men, and displeasure of pure in- 
visible intelligences, would yet be my state, though exempt 
from temporal chastisements in the divine providence, at last 
on the great and terrible day of accounts? To an immortal 
being placed in a station which honors him with the duty of 
bringing hundreds of his immortal brethren to eternal felicity, 
but who has betrayed his trust, and hath neither come himself, nor 
done his utmost to show them the way, the judge of the universe 
will say, I demand the blood of the souls, whom you have left to 



HEARER OF THE GOSPEL 



45 



perish, at your hand. — f n proportion unto the value of his immor- 
tal soul; in proportion unto its honor before an assembled uni- 
verse at the great day of accounts; in proportion unto the 
eternal thrillings of joy in the general assembly and church 
of the first born in heaven, I am constrained, oh ! my breth- 
ren, to entreat your supplications at a throne of mercy in my 
behalf. — How happy when carried along through an arduous 
course in the bosom of the prayers of the righteous which 
avail much ! A conscience void of offence towards God and 
man, disregards all the persecution of the world, procures the 
approbation and love of men and angels, and the everlasting 
friendship of God himself. For they that bring many to 
righteousness shall shine as the stars in the firmament for 
ever and ever. 

But heirs of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ, is not the. 
preaching of the gospel as trying a criterion in your ears, as it 
is in the mouth of him who is an ambassador to you in 
Christ's stead? — whether there be a respect, to the influence 
of your lives and behavior amongst men, to the eternal welfare 
of your immortal spirits among the spirits of the universe, or 
to your answering, on the last day of this created state of 
things, to the judge of the quick and of the dead? None of 
us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself, — every one 
of you must have an influence to assist or to deter travellers on 
the same road to immortality; every man's soul that is saved 
will be saved yet so as by fire ; and that inheritance which is 
incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away, is equal- 
ly invaluable to both you and me. 

Our prayers, my brethren, to the one God in the moments 
of preparation should continually be, " clothe thy priests with 
strength, and let thy saints shout aloud for joy." — Our pray- 
ers to the one God in the solemnity of public adoration and 
worship should continually be, " stay our minds upon thy- 
self:" — Our prayers to the one God on leaving the courts of 



44 DUTIES OP THE PREACHER, &C. 

his Zion, should continually be, " pour out thy spint upon thy 
seed and thy blessing upon thine offspring." — Oh ! God, in- 
crease us and we shall not be small, multiply us and we shall 
not be few. — Feed thy flock like a shepherd, gather thy lambs 
in thine arms, and carry them in thy bosom, and gently lead 
those that are with young. — Be as a wall of fire around us and 
a glory in the midst of us. — Where we go, do thou go, and 
where we lodge, do thou lodge. — OhJ Eternal Judge, may 
these people be my joy and crown of rejoicing, in the day 
when thou makest up thy jewels, and may I be as a signet en- 
graven upon their affections, whilst I minister in thy temple 
amongst them, and till, we shall all appear in the New Jerusa- 
lem where all affections centre upon thyself. — Father — Son 
Spirit — bless — save — sane t ify . — Amen . 




DISCOURSE II 



ON CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. 

Matth. 28: 6. He is not here, for he is men. 

The scriptures, my brethren, inform us that early on the 
morning of the first day of the week, Christ, by his own power 
and that of his Father, arose from lying in the sepulchre, and 
leaving his grave-clothes behind him ascended from the tomb, — ■■ 
the stone which closed its mouth being rolled away by the 
ministry of an angel sent from heaven. The reason that this 
angel was sent on such a mission, was not that Christ was 
unable to accomplish the object of it himself. Though he was 
newly risen from the cold and stiffened stretch of death; yet 
his members were not discomposed for any undertaking, nor 
was his power in the least diminished for any exertion. Yea, 
let me intimate, that he who said, I have power to lay down my 
life, and I have power to take it again, in the act of fulfilling 
these words, must have called into action immediate principles 
of power that could effectuate any thing which the combined 
influence of wisdom and omnipotence could achieve. The 
angel was sent as the messenger of God the Father to wel- 
come Christ from the dead ; to begin the glory with which, on 
his finishing the work of redemption, it was promised, he should 
be invested; and to announce by his visible appearance from the 
heavenly throne, that the work of man's salvation was the™ 
accepted as fully accomplished. 
6 



46 



Christ's resurrection . 



In describing the manner of the resurrection of Christ, I 
must lead you to a circumstance meriting a particular atten- 
tion, though rather a connected than an included circumstance. 
Whilst all I have now mentioned was carrying on at the tomb 
thus early in the morning, the disciples of Jesus, these our 
witnesses, had no knowledge of it; they had not yet arisen to 
visit the supposed dark and dreary abode of their former Lord 
and benefactor. None saw the splendid sight of the descend- 
ing angel whose countenance shone like lightning, and whose 
raiment was white as snow ; none saw the stone that shut up 
the tomb of the crucified Saviour, but still remaining Lord of 
the universe, spoiled of its seals, and heaved from its position ; 
none saw the hope of Israel ascending from the bowels of the 
earth as the first fruits of that resurrection of which all are to 
partake, but the profligate Roman soldiers, who utterly unac- 
customed to such miraculous and marvellous appearances, lost 
their powers of observation in a swoon of amazement. The 
angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled 
back the stone and sat upon it; his countenance was like 
lightning, and his raiment was white as snow, and for fear 
of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. 

But though the resurrection of Christ was thus secret, and 
by the wise providence of heaven secluded from the view and 
observation of the very men who were to be the witnesses of 
it to all ages, yet this fact does not in the least impugn the 
moral certainty of his resurrection. Yea, this very circum- 
stance, no doubt, was wisely contrived, that it might contribute 
to disentangle our inquiries, and to finish off our belief. Had 
the disciples been at the tomb, some hesitation might have 
remained in the mind unable to repose in the full freedom of 
assent. The prerogatives of reason would ask: if Christ rose 
by his own power, if he is that mighty one which his historians 
affirm him to be; if his resurrection is to be the great polar star 
to guide through all ages the voyage of so many followers 
into the regions of certainty respecting his character, what 



\ 



Christ's resurrection. 



47 



need was there to confirm jealousies that were already aroused, 
by assembling around it, and looking wishfully towards his 
tomb? Why were the disciples there at so early, and so suspi- 
cious an hour? Did they await to salute Christ from the 
grave? They believed not that he was to rise. They must 
have had a plot: it seems that they were characters deter- 
mined to deceive. 

Permit me, my brethren, to make one other remark as I ad- 
vance in clearing the foundation on which I would lay the 
positive evidences which construct the fabric of undoubted 
cert ainty in the resurrection of your Redeemer. The resurrec- 
tion of man from the dead, whilst the experience of every 
generation hears the voice of the grave, saying, it is not enough, 
is yet in itself an event possible; and the peculiar reasons which 
his historians assign, sufficiently proclaim the wisdom of early 
interposing, and making Jesus the first fruits of the resurrec- 
tion from the dead. Are not the admirable order of the 
universe, the relative organization of every part, and mechanism 
of all animated natures, an indubitable evidence that an infinitely 
intelligent and omnipotent being is the author of our existence? 
And cannot this supreme Creator restore that connexion which 
binds into the unity of a person the soul and body of man, 
though it has been once dissolved? — And will he not do this, 
when his word is pledged for it; when the work of redemption 
calls for its reward ; when a spiritual society is to be reared 
under the government of its own head; when the hopes of so 
many are to be enlivened by the certainty that their mansions 
in heaven are already taken possession of in their name ; and 
when the fact itself of the resurrection is to diffuse such a light 
of evidence over all the system of truth to which he is to call 
the faith of mankind? 

Being thus assured that the matter of their testimony is a 
thing possible, and that it might, by the cause to which it is 
ascribed, the mighty power of God, which is said to have 
wrought in Christ mightily, wlietj he raised him from the deady 



Christ's resurrection. 



be effected, — I must now, my brethren, challenge your atten- 
tion to the positive evidences of the great doctrine we are 
establishing, — The credibility of the witnesses of the resurrec- 
tion of Christ. And on this part of our investigation, there 
are four things to which 1 must call your attention. The first 
is, That we be well assured that the witnesses of Christ's 
resurrection were men of discernment and penetration enough 
to ascertain this great fact: Secondly, That we be well as- 
sured that they have clearly declared that they had these op- 
portunities of information, and did improve them, which v\e 
presume requisite: Thirdly, That there are a sufficient number 
of witnesses to vouch for this great fact; and that these are all 
consistent in their testimony : Lastly, That the witnesses of 
this great fact were men of moral honesty and had no inten- 
tions to deceive. 

Our first object is to show, That we have satisfactory proofs, 
that the witnesses of Christ's resurrection were men of discern- 
ment and penetration enough to ascertain this great fact. 
Many are the aftairs about the nature and production of which, 
few men are competent judges. Their nature is too refined or 
intricate, or their production proceeds from too many co-opera- 
ting causes, or these act too secretly before their dull curiosity, 
for the powers of ordinary men's observation to justify us in a 
reliance upon their testimony. Of this nature are all vegetable 
and animal bodies, in the principles on which their parts 
cohere, and in the mechanism by which their vegetation and 
life are nourished and supported. Many moral and metaphy- 
sical truths also, lie far beyond the utmost possible view which 
can be taken by the eye of an ordinary man. But what I must 
remark to you, in estimating the qualifications of the witnesses 
of the resurrection of Christ, is, that the subject of their ob- 
servation, the point on which the reputation of these unlettered 
men is to rest, is none of these abstruse and difficult matters 
of knowledge. The resurrection of Christ was an obvious 
matter of fact ; and the most illiterate and rude of understand- 



Christ's resurrection. 



49 



ing, tax gatherers and fishermen, were equally capable of 
judging of its certainty, with the most learned and most pene- 
trating of mankind. To be assured of any obvious matter of 
fact that falls under our observation, requires only that our 
senses be not disordered, and that we use them to ascertain it. 
In this way, indeed, we may not comprehend all the concomi- 
tant circumstances so well, and their relations as causes or 
consequences of the event; yet, where such an event takes 
place, so obvious to our senses, we can no more doubt of the 
fact itself, than we can doubt of our own existence. 

I am not, my brethren, fabricating an excuse for the acknow- 
ledged simplicity, and unlettered character of the witnesses 
of the resurrection of Christ. These men, who, though never 
classed in the schools of philosophy, nor taught the arts of 
artificial disputation, are yet proclaimed, by their writings, to 
be both great and good, to be men of sound understandings, 
and of hearts deeply interested in the welfare of mankind, had, 
I aver, a plain and obvious matter of fact to ascertain and 
propagate. An object of sight, an object of touch, an asso- 
ciate in conversation, describe the palpable and prominent 
criteria about which the apostles of our holy religion are con- 
cerned. They were not at the sepulchre at its eventful period ; 
and if they knew certainly of his resurrection at all, it could 
be only by seeing him, by conversing with him, and by touch- 
ing Christ after his resurrection. Besides these, there is no 
other possible way which can be satisfactory to human nature, 
and this even after immediate revelations and miracles shall 
have ceased; and could there be a case in which it would be 
more impossible for men to be mistaken 1 Could they, if they 
used their senses and that common judgment which belongs 
to all men, not ascertain, beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
the identity of his person, — from those views their astonished 
and eager eyes would take of him; from that embracing and 
handling which an object, that awakened to the last degree the 
hands of curiosity, would excite; and from that conversation 

5* 



50 



chhist's resurrection. 



which winds through all the circles of former interest and particuv 
lar friendships, and places before them, that delicate field, where 
art must soon be ineffectual in endeavoring to impose upon 
genuine and unsophisticated principles of common sense? 
Was there no peculiarly discriminating mark in his counte- 
nance, his gait, his manner of address, his voice, or in a word, 
in the whole of those peisonal distinctions, which bring at 
once acquaintances, even after years of separation and feeble 
reminiscence, most certainly to the knowledge of their friends, 
to present before the disciples of Jesus, the real person of that 
master whose image is yet playing so vividly on every power 
of their mind? Are there no particular incidents, no private 
transactions, no pledged promises, in that great and compli- 
cated design, which, before his death, both he and they were 
prosecuting, for their conversation to call up and review, that 
from the vivid intellect of the leader and author of all their 
movements, touching, with perfect remembrance, all the lines 
of his own delicate fabric, his disciples might most certainly 
learn the identity of his person ? — There were to be reviewed, 
not only the observations made before one another when the 
disciples were first called to enrol their names in his service; 
on his discourses and parables delivered generally to the mul- 
titudes, and particularly explained to themselves in the intima- 
cies of friendship ; but there was, as yet, the secret and most 
memorable transaction of Christ's transfiguration; and above 
all, the complicated, affecting, and distressing scene, through 
which they had all passed, that night in which Christ was ap- 
prehended by his enemies; — and could any other have started 
t ) the high and distinguished station, which the leader in all 
T lese transactions, is now supposed to occupy, and not be detect- 
ed and abandoned in a few moments ? Yes , christians, the par- 
ticular features and appearance of his person, and the subjects 
of their necessary conversation with Christ, must have preclu- 
ded all possibility of an impostor recommending himself to 
the acceptance of the disciples of Jesus, after his resurrection 



Christ's resurrection. 



51 



!b said --to have taken place. It was never instanced in another 
case, nor is it possible to be believed in his, that one should 
be so like Christ in every personal peculiarity and distinction, 
and that this one should, in the complicated, affecting, and un- 
finished scheme which had been carrying on , start up before 
the sight of the disappointed disciples, should procure their 
assent to the belief of a miracle in the resurrection from the 
dead; and should so conduct himself afterwards, that, although 
he knew nothing of their plans or conversations before, he 
should, in no instance, deviate into mismanagement or demur 
in ignorance to create a suspicion ; but should, with as much 
knowledge and discernment of all their connected interests, 
as their real master and leader himself could do, conduce to 
the establishment of their belief. 

But is it suspected that they were imposed upon by the arts of 
an apparition. Many of the ancients believed they saw visions, 
and heard them speak to them. Brutus, the Roman general, 
believed himself warned in this manner of his fatal end. Phi- 
losophy ought to admit of supernatural appearances, if she 
admit of the possibility of the communication of a supernatu- 
ral revelation, and particularly, if the object of this revelation 
be to lay open the invisible world, by bringing life and im- 
mortality to light. She cannot, indeed, admit of them if she 
restrict, with some modern philosophers, the Creator of nature, 
in all his intercourse with his intelligent creatures^ to the ex- 
pression of his mind by the signatures of his wisdom as they 
are enstamped upon the phenomena of the visible universe. 
The people that argue against a stream of testimony in favor 
of extraordinary facts, because of the perceptible uniformity 
in their own age of nature, forget that if a supernatural revela- 
tion be possible, it must at some time or other take place ; that 
when its visions are descending, and taking root in our world, 
extraordinary phenomena must in some way or other attend 
them; and that, therefore, to apply to this particular period, 
and to the place of the earth where the inspired men reside, the 



52 



Christ's resurrection. 



laws of providence upon other occasions, is quite unphilosophi- 
cal. If a revelation be to be made by God to man, it must be 
at some period of his history, and may occupy a greater or a 
less duration according as infinite wisdom pleases; but it must 
be effected either by God's miraculous appearance, or voice, or 
impression, or by some supernatural messenger : a revelation 
without a miracle or a deviation from the laws of nature, is a 
contradiction in terms. 

But that the re-appearance of our Saviour after his death, 
though in case of a revelation supernatural appearances must 
be supposed possible, was not an apparition, is clear, from these 
simple considerations — Because malign agency must be sup- 
posed inconsistent with the whole moral strain of the gospel, 
whilst benevolent power could never urge and press so upon 
the senses, the genius of imposture. Because, the tomb of 
Christ was, on the morning of the alleged resurrection, indu- 
bitably found empty, and the body of Jesus was never discover- 
ed by the Jewish rulers, nor, as it is asserted, by the disciples 
themselves, unless in the resuscitated person of him who bore 
all the personal features of their former master, and who knew 
all his concerns. And because, Christ was crucified, and had 
flesh and bones to be examined by the hands and senses of his dis- 
ciples ; and if they felt that he had the tangible properties of a real 
body, and that too on which were the expressive marks of his 
crucifixion, the very prints of the nails, and the wound made 
by the soldier's spear; they could not be mistaken, either re- 
specting the reality, or the identity of his person. An individu- 
al might be supposed deceived by the schemes of his own fancy; 
but that such a number should all bring forth such an unexpect- 
ed vision of joy at the same time; should see it always in the 
same manner in which every other one saw it; should all hear 
the same words pronounced by it, is to suppose such a sister- 
hood of imaginations as bewildered nature never could create. 
No, if the disciples be honest men, there is before them no 
apparition arising from the womb of surrounding elements, or 



Christ's resurrection. 



*53 



the disorder of human imagination, but their Saviour, the man 
Christ Jesus, risen from the dead. 

Secondly, Have the disciples of Christ clearly declared that 
they had the opportunities of information, and did improve 
them, which we have shown necessary? And here do they not 
declare that on the morning of the resurrection, the sepulchre 
was visited by several of themselves and others, and unexpect- 
edly found empty; that it was searched and the grave-clothes 
only found; and that it contained a deputation recognized as 
suitable to the magnitude of the occasion, an angel at the 
head , and another at the feet, of the position which Jesus had 
occupied ; and who uttered the words of our text, He is not 
here, for he is risen? Do they not assert that Jesus himself 
appeared to two of them as they journeyed towards Emmaus ; 
and entering into conversation with them revealed himself to 
them, till they would constrain him to abide with them, and that 
on this occasion he told them all things which he spake to thern 
whilst he was with them, from the law, the psalms, and the 
prophets, concerning himself? — a conversation interlacing 
with former situations and occurrences, which, at this early 
stage of the report of a resurrection, bestowed the most dis- 
criminating opportunity of awakening, by certain criteria, 
jealousies, or of confirming belief. — Do they not further aver 
that he appeared to the eleven, as they were in the best con- 
dition for recognizing who he was — as they sat at meat^ all 
composed, and in readiness, to make just observations! Do 
they not assert that to a part of them he showed himself af- 
terwards; and who durst not now ask who he was — knowing, 
by their familiarity with him, that he was their Lord ? Yea, do 
they not proclaim that they all accompanied him as far as 
Bethany, where, receiving bis best blessing, they witnessed 
that naturally to be expected consequence of a resurrection, his 
ascension into heaven, by parting from them, and a cloud »e- 
celving him out of their sight? — Do they not tell us that he 
remained forty days on earth after his resurrection, speaking 



54 



Christ's resurrection. 



too of those things that pertained to that kingdom of God 
which he had instituted? — And by consequence affording 
many stages of particular interrogation and of recurrence to 
former times — points, as already intimated, of observation that 
could not by men of common understanding be mistaken. 
I see, on one occasion, for instance, Peter standing surround- 
ed by his companions, and I hear Jesus exciting the curiosity, 
and trying the faith and fortitude of Peter, by alluding to a 
circumstance of affecting and intricate remembrance, and re- 
peating it again and again, as he stands an object of the highest 
veneration before the company, — Simon son of Jonas, lovest 
thou me? 

Yes, christians, the witnesses of the resurrection particular- 
ly assert, that Christ himself challenged their attention in the 
highest exercise of its powers in conversation, and also to an 
examination of those unerring marks, by which they could not 
fail to ascertain both the reality and identity of his person. 
He saluted them, it is said, saying peace be unto you, and in 
this calm and friendly disposition, he stood before them, and 
showed them, they say, his hands and his side. Yea, they add, 
that the incredulity of Thomas was overcome, before the eyes 
of them all, by his compliance with this affecting exhortation, — 
Thomas reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and 
reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not 
faithless but believing. In a word the disciples have clearly 
declared that they both had it and improved every opportu- 
nity of satisfying themselves respecting the fact of the resur- 
rection of their own great teacher and master, who was so 
recently crucified; — and who, besides the usual wounds of 
crucifixion, presented a deep wound in his side, which had 
been pierced to ascertain whether a member and feature of the 
deceased would writhe from remains of life in the centre of the 
human frame. 

Our third inquiry was, Is there a sufficient number of wit- 
nesses to vouch for this great fact, and are these consistent in 



Christ's resurrection. 



55 



their testimony? In an affair of ordinary and frequent oc- 
currence, the testimony of one man of credit and character, 
about any matter of fact, is sufficient to procure our assent; 
but where the case is such as falls seldom under observation 
corroborative evidence becomes necessary. If it be a matter of 
extraordinary occurrence, and above the course of the common 
Operations of nature, we cannot rely on less than the concurrent 
testimony of severals. To rest, in such an extraordinary and 
plainly miraculous instance as that of the resurrection of Jesus, 
on the testimony of one man, however well his character in 
every respect for a witness might be established, would evi- 
dently, in the view of all considerate men, be to incur the 
imputation of credulity. In estimating its evidence, then, it 
is indispensably necessary for our own satisfaction, that we 
know that there is a sufficient number of vouchers to attest 
this momentous fact. — But respecting this we cannot hesitate. 
We have the concurrent testimony of the eleven disciples, 
with many others. These all saw him after his resurrection, 
they all conversed with him, and they all examined, or saw 
examined, the wounds of his crucifixion. — It is in vain to say 
in attenuation of this evidence, that all these have not left us 
a record of it. The resurrection is attested by all those who 
have written, both in their histories and epistolary writings, 
either in express language or in presupposed and granted 
principles and allusions ; and the other witnesses are often men- 
tioned and their names particularised ; and would the writers 
of the New Testament have done this, had they not stated 
about them an irrefragable truth ? Would not enemies have 
told them that they were fools and worse than madmen, to par- 
ticularise associates whom they knew either not to have exist- 
ence at all, or to be the very opposite of those witnesses they 
"were affirming them to be? Does not this particularly appear 
to be the case, when we reflect that their names are all men- 
tioned, as for a long time previous to his death attendants of 
Christ; attendants too, who are all reassembled after his re- 



56 



Christ's resurrection. 



surrection and asserted to be present at his appearances^ afr 
tendants who remain associated together till they have c<5f> 
veiled thousands that are to read and examine the written 
assertions repecting the primary witnesses of the great fact of 
the resurrection ; attendants, many of whom are alive, long after 
the writings appear, and can either confirm or refute the 
assertions respecting themselves ? Indeed it is demonstrable 
that the case of the resurrection of Christ can never be reject- 
ed for want of a sufficient number of witnesses to attest it; 
and whilst all the writers of the New Testament relate tlie 
fact of the resurrection expressly, except James and Jude, 
who presuppose and allude to it, as the ground of all their ex- 
ertions and writings, — The truth is, that many of these 
writings of the New Testament are epistles directed to parti- 
cular societies or individuals; and so most incon trover tibly 
lead us to the origin of the New Testament scriptures, in the 
very age in which the facts that are related in them, took 
place ; — and hence, the genuineness of these books, as written 
by those authors whose names they bear; — a circumstance, 
which, though not of vital importance, is yet morally certain, 
and never was even attempted to be denied by infidels in the 
first age of Christianity. 

Is it suspected that the historians of Jesus are embarrassed 
in their testimony? The scriptures, it must be observed, are 
supposed revealed for the use of man to the end of time; and, 
to make it obvious that their contents are written by different 
hands, it is necessary, that they present not merely a variety 
of style; but also that freedom, which, whilst it moves free of 
contradiction, manifests a liberty of choice, by each, of mate- 
rials, so as to mark his production a distinct production, and 
worthy of a place amongst the rest. This principle must have 
been particularly kept in view amongst the writers of the li& 
of Christ; since the taste of men in their own day called for 
all the variety that could assemble with consistency, in order 
to procure a perusal to contemporary histories of the same 



Christ's resurrection. 



57 



individual; and since the jealousy of distant future ages could 
not be suppressed, without enlisting all the prudence that could 
make arrangements to scatter the appearances of contrivance 
and design. You ought to remember that a liberty of trans- 
lating into their pages, from the great mass of materials that 
on the field of events lie before them, the particulars which 
seem to them most proper, and of dispensing with many others, 
is a privilege which all historians vindicate as belonging unto 
them. This is more especially the case with those who pro- 
fessedly give an abridgment only of transactions; and above 
all, with contemporary abridgers, who all write to be esteemed 
useful, and to be read. Hence a variety in the narration of 
the incidents of his life, and of the circumstances attending 
his death and resurrection, is necessarily to be anticipated in 
the historians of Jesus: a variety which, whilst it is disentan- 
gled, must comport with their respective desires to be perused, 
and esteemed, and with their obvious design of particular dis- 
tinct histories, and yet all marked abbreviations. The appli- 
cation of some or all of these principles affords a key ^o open 
the most intricate interference among the historical accounts 
of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. 

Much has been objected by infidels to the different relations 
of the evangelists respecting the supernatural appearances or 
angels, who attended on the occasion of the resurrection, and 
who addressed the women that went soon after the moment at 
which it happened to the sepulchre, and informed them of its 
having taken place. Thus Matthew says, that there was one 
angel, that descended, and rolling back the stone, sat upon it; 
Mark says, that there was a young man, clothed in long white 
raiment, and in the tomb; Luke says, that there were in the 
tomb two men in shining garments; and John says, that there 
were two angels in the tomb, the one at the head, and the 
other at the feet, of the position which Jesus had occupied. 
But, it is evident, that both Mark and Luke suppose their ap- 
pearances in human shape to spring from an unexpected and 



58 



Christ's resurrection. 



supernatural origin; whilst Matthew and John speak of their 
angels as assuming particular positions which a bodily frame 
only can occupy. Remembering his fact, we have only fur- 
ther to recollect, in order to see the consistency of their varia- 
tions here, that the Hebrews, when they spoke of angels ap- 
pearing in human shape, indifferently called them, as in the 
case of their famous visit to Abraham and Lot, men or angels; 
and that in many instances of the mission of angels, there is a 
chief in the delegation, who sometimes engrosses the appella- 
tion to himself, and sometimes is only classed with his as- 
sociates; as, in the same instances of Abraham and Lot's men 
or angels, who are again and again mentioned, in the recital of 
the same transactions, both in the plural and singular number. 
For, let me remark, there is not the shadow of an incon- 
sistency in their accounts of the position of these angels at the 
time the women arrived at the sepulchre. The women, it is 
beyond a doubt, did not arrive till some short time after the 
resurrection ; — a period from the descent of Matthew's angel 
and from his rolling back the stone and sitting upon it, more 
than sufficient to permit his removal into the sepulchre ; where 
all the other historians speak of the abode of this heavenly de- 
putation at the moment of the women's arrival. 

But, my brethren, what I would particularly remark to you 
here is, that whilst, with all of their profession, the historians of 
Christ exercise a distinguishing prudence in the choice of those 
particulars they areto narrate respecting its concomitant circum- 
stances, they all assert, most positively, the main point, the re- 
surrection itself. There is the utmost freedom of heart appa- 
rent in all their declarations of this, and the utmost ardor 
shown to present it as the centre around which all their powers 
of belief are collected and gathered together. No reader of 
the New Testament can peruse its pages,, without seeing that 
the alleged fact of a risen Saviour, is the call which reassembles 
his disciples ; is the spirit which animates them unto a unity 
of proposed exertions ; is the bond which binds them, in all 



CHRIST^ RESTE2ECTI0N. 



59 



regions, with equal firmness to the same cause; is the object 
which inspires them to write of Jesus of Nazareth; and is the 
foundation on which they would build the whole of that society 
they are travelling so far and wide to establish. 

Our fourth and last inquiry is, Ar the witnesses of Christ's re- 
surrection men of moral honesty; and in the propagation of this 
docirine are they without all i?r rntions to deceive? This is the 
great point now to be established. For if the resurrection is 
an event possible, and if it may be effected by the cause to 
which it is ascribed ; if the disciples were competent witnesses 
to ascertain this great inviting, and prominent fact; if they 
have declared that they both had and improved every desira- 
ble opportunity of ascertaining it, by all the unerring marks 
which a risen friend and master, absent part only of three days, 
and bearing the green wounds of crucifixion, could present; if 
I of contemporaneous and personal witnesses they 
have most unfeigned ly declared that they did ascertain it; — it 
will follow, if they are not determined to urge an imposition 
upon the world, that the matter of their concurrent testimony is 

itled to our belief, and the rejection of it is highly un- 
re sonable. But how sincere, and fully persuaded of the truth 
of what they propagated they were, will clearly appear from the 
folk wing considerations. 

Had (hey been hypocritical impostors, how could they have 
in us so many excellent instructions as they have done in 
their writings? Had they been men of this description would 
!hey have been so careful to have their writings so replete with 
BO many excellent moral precepts and so many pious sentiments? 
In '.his character, could they have exposed vice in so odious a 
light, and have been ever so watchful to drag into view and 
reprobate, with such a sincere countenance, the ways and mo- 
tives that conduct unto it? Would such, impossible! have 

rtrayed it in all its aggravated circumstances in their own 
:• ses! Could feigned characters have explained so clearly to 
the reality of the hidden religion of the heart? Or would 



60 



Christ's resurrection. 



they, in a word, have breathed in all their writings such a sa- 
vor of genuine unpolluted holiness? 

But what I have now mentioned I intend as presumptive 
evidence only, — I bring human nature to bear testimony, by 
all her possible capacities of acting, to the sincerity of the 
apostles of Christ. And be it remembered that all I am proving 
on this head, is, — That the apostles were men of moral hones- 
ty and had no intentions to deceive. My brethren, had not 
the apostles been thoroughly persuaded of the certainty and 
truth of the fact which they propagated, is it credible that such 
a number of them, after having been so easily dispersed by the 
melancholy prospect on the cross, would have all reassembled 
and united to propagate the greatest falsehood that ever was 
imposed upon the world; and that every individual of them af- 
terwards, should, in the midst of the most discouraging difficul- 
ties and dangers, and even under the arm of death, have 
continued to assert, maintain and propagate this most palpable 
f ilaehood, though little honor, wealth, or prospect of promotion 
of any kind, could operate to purchase his perseverance? Ne- 
ver did it happen in another case, that even one man, far less 
a number of men, all at the same time, and about the same 
affair, were of so odd a turn of mind ; so easily attached to a 
glaring scheme of imposture ; and then so stubborn and so de- 
void of the common principles and feelings of humanity in his 
dissemination of it ; so bold in the face of every enemy, so un- 
shackled by the remonstrances of friends; so ready to tear him- 
self from the bosoms of the most intimate relations — all to 
sound abroad a known and fabricated falsehood ; proclaim it 
too, at the peril of his own reputation, at the expense of that 
ease which we all ultimately seek ; at the risk from daily in- 
creasing persecutors of his own life, and under those sad anti- 
cipations of an awful reckoning at last which even the hypocrite 
must often feel. 

Zoroaster, the author of the superstition of the Chaldeans, 
indeed, maintained some of the grossest errors he at first broach* 



Christ's resurrection. 



■6X 



<ed, and propagated them till the day of his death. But in this 
there was nothing wonderful. He had few and feeble ene- 
mies to encounter; the most exalted and powerful princes and 
nobles, in most of the circumjacent regions, soon appeared 
upon his side. As a reward of his perseverance, his ambition, 
his ease, his convenience, his honor, his worldly interest, had 
all a prospect, daily brightening too, that they were to be ef- 
fectually consulted. To stand the first man in ecclesiastical 
matters in all the kingdoms of the east; to appoint laws and 
ordinances which as lights from his singular wisdom were to 
foe received ; and to behold kings, princes, and magistrates, 
look up to him for laws, liberty, and instruction, were the pow- 
erful motives which influenced and led forward the conduct of 
this ancient and admired chief of the wise men of the east. — 
Besides they were doctrines, not obvious facts, which this phi- 
losophical individual strove to establish; and great as his mind 
was, many of his errors might have beguiled him into a belief 
of their better foundation, either by their venerable parentage 
for many generations among the nations whence he imported 
them, or by those specimens of plausibility by which error so 
frequently imposes upon the greatest of mankind. 

Similar things must be said of Mahomet, that false though 
admired prophet, among the nations which he deceived. This 
extraordinary man exhibits a mixture often operative though 
seldom so successful in human nature, of insatiable desires of 
glory and power, of carnal gratifications and delights, and of 
religious respects, on the one hand ; and on the other, of that 
wild enthusiasm which creates to itself heavenly visions, cul- 
tivates an intercourse with them ; and then devotes all time and 
talents, in obedience to their supposed mandates. Even in 
some of his alterations and changes of formerly written revela^ 
tions which lead the unreflecting reader of the Koran to won- 
der at the stubborn impudence of the Arabian impostor, there 
appears to be no less the operations of a heated imagination, 
figuring to itself heaven subduing all inconsistencies to gratify 



62 Christ's resurrection. 

the desires, and to supply the wants of its greatest favorite, than 
of that inclination which so visibly reaches forth its hand to 
turn an acquired exalted station to administer to the tastes 
and passions, it is known, can now be gratified. A vast fabric 
has been erected by Mahomet, but its loosely jointed parts are 
obviously the brood of an imagination which had been active 
in silence; whose images brightened daily and gathered life 
upon it; which had returns of those that were most congenial, 
till it bowed in reverence and heard their divine mandates; 
wh^ch led to withdraw into retirement till all was supposed de- 
livered that was to qualify the legislator ; — and which after suc- 
cess commanded by other powers and this confidently inspi- 
red preparation, believed alteration to succeed alteration among 
his former revelations, in order to reward so prosperous and high- 
ly favored a messenger of heaven.— I ascribe the success of Ma- 
homet to other causes than to his wild enthusiasm ; because, in his 
instance, there were many other causes that evidently operated ; 
and are, indeed, sufficient to account for all the spirit and fury 
of his perseverance, although we should suppose that he, as an 
individual, started from motives of imposture only. The pri- 
vate fortune of the Arabian, previous to his assumption of the 
character of the prophet of God, was great and influential : His 
uncle, who though late in becoming a convert, yet in all dangers 
of the early part of his progress proclaimed himself his pro- 
tector, was a great and powerful prince; and could, and did 
effectually protect him : And he was early inured to warfare, 
which, it is known, he soon applied to the propagation of his 
religion ; and the success of which promised always to raise 
him, and soon did so, to the highly gratifying station of being 
the prince and priest of his people. Once start the son of Ab- 
dallah, and every motive that lies within his viewpoints to per- 
severance, and comes in the lines that will push him forward. — 
The honor of the last and greatest prophet of God ; the glory of 
the founder of a new religion ; the influence which his own cir- 
cumstances can procure him; the protection that his uncle 



Christ's resurrection. 



63 



actually affords him; the spirit which the manner in which he 
enrols the names of proselytes inspired ; all attest the known 
principles in human nature on which this great deceiver propa- 
gated his cause. I ask, is it possible for the common prin- 
ciples of human action to stop the course which is once be- 
gun, bribed, solicited, and steeled to further exertions, as both 
the early and more late progress of Mahomet's ambition, enthu- 
siasm, or military renown, is perceived to be? He has great 
difficulties to encounter, and at length his life is threatened 
more than once; but by this time he is a warrior; and are not 
the glancing of arms, the parade of martial order, the noise of 
musters, the hardships of marches, the dangers of battle, what 
breathe, independent of all other causes, a spirit into man, 
which leads to its own cultivation ; and when the laurels of 
victory have already adorned the brow, can any thing farther 
be needful to keep for ever the name of the first captain on the 
roll of danger? 

But, my brethren, very different from the situations now 
described, were those of the continually persevering disciples 
of Jesus. They could not be mistaken respecting the matter 
they propagated — it was no doctrine formerly disputed ot re- 
ceived amongst men, nor was it a delusion that could rise by 
degrees upon their religious feelings by the assistances of fan- 
cy ; it was a palpable matter of fact • a matter to be turned and 
examined on all sides by marks that their senses and their rea?- 
son could not mistake. On a doctrinal point, the greatest 
mind may be deceived, and a single imagination may burst into 
a blaze of enthusiasm by the images that court admittance into 
it ; but in the concurrent matter of the testimony of the apos- 
tles, we have a fact only ; a fact that invites to its examination 
their reason and their senses ; and which, as it is impossible to 
suppose such a number transported into a trance of enthusiasm 
in a moment, so it presents none of that unsettledness in 
which imagination wanders when it loses itself in religious 
frenzy, but it ties down every power of their minds to a palpa- 
ble object of observation only. 



64 Christ's resurrection. 

Is it said that they started and pursued their course from 
the glory of being the founders of a new religion? An indivi- 
dual may arise, feel his ambition, and swear undaunted perse- 
verance from such a motive: — But could a number of men do 
so? Could a number of men, collected together as Christ's 
disciples were, and untutored as their education proclaims them 
to be, do so? Could they all agree to remain on the same 
level, and would never an one of them feel an ambition to out- 
strip the rest of his companions? Teerriing with the vanity of 
imposing upon the whole world, are these men so profoundly 
artful that they will never show a shadow of desire to pilfer 
from one another a portion of that glory which is so dear to 
them in its divided state? If the disciples of Christ buy the 
renown of founders of a pure religion at the expense of present 
reputation, ease, and life, can it be supposed, that these men, 
these men thus breathing ambition only, would all seek a por- 
tion, and a small portion only, of the general stock in the firm 
of glory whieh belongs to the apostles? Do men thus peaceably 
trade in the world of ambition, and thus for many years, though 
in different circumstances and possessed of different talents, 
yet remain the contented and humble sharers of a general 
treasury? Can ambition thus content itself, when its zeal has 
snatched up a falsehood, for the maintenance of the truth of 
which, against conscience and honor, life is sacrificed, and 
when after long fatigue in the propagation of it, contentions 
arise and reproofs are administerd ? Ambition might fire Ma- 
homet and other individual impostors, with a desire to shine 
through all difficulties and dangers, the authors of a new reli- 
gion ; but we think it impossible that this ambition could enter 
into the minds of so many men at once, and the peculiar 
aspiring nature of the principle not shoot forth, in their in* 
stances, into that individual and selfish aggrandizement which 
it assumes on every other occasion where circumstances can 
remonstrate so feebly against its most characteristic operations. 
But why do I reason in this manner? What glory or honor 
could possibly accrue to the undaunted and continually per* 



Christ's resurrection. 



05 



severing disciples of Jesus? Was not the fame of Jesus great 
in the world before his disciples entered upon the propagation 
of their cause ; and was it not as the servants of this renowned 
master that they encountered their perils and death ? Jesus of 
Nazareth, a man mighty in word and deed, is the confessed 
author of all the doctrines they preached, the precepts they 
inculcated, and the ordinances to which they challenged an at- 
tention; and before those who then, or ever will, believe them, 
they are only the immediate disciples of a great teacher that 
obscures them, and hides them in his shade; whilst before their 
opponents, they are, and will ever be, the most wretched and 
vile of characters. — It cannot be from ambition that the disci- 
ples of Christ enrol in a common cause their names; travel 
through all lands, amidst all hardships and dangers; and ever 
with their life in their hand ready to be laid down as the only 
stopping place they will allow to their progress. 

But is it said that the prospect of worldly protection and ag- 
grandizement bought their singular and unwearied endeavors? 
No protection, no emolument, no preferment, could long in the 
propagation of their undertaking, be expected from the princes 
a nd great ones of the earth by those that could not expect them 
and did not receive them at the origin of their undertaking. 
The treasures of the rich and powerful never opened to the 
first preachers of the gospel. Where they stated all the great 
and influential were already exasperated against them and rea- 
dy to destroy them for the very name which they proclaimed. 
And in all places of the world the discouraging faces of wan* 
and poverty soon presented themselves as the only supposable 
circumstances in which, they could ever afterwards struggle 
with their cause. My brethren, the whole history of the dis- 
ciples, and their declarations, in their epistles, before thousands 
in their own day, who could easily have contradicted them, 
instead of receiving their statements on this head as the dic- 
tates of inspiration, show us that the apostles did not act from 
pure principles of avarice; whilst, let me add, that instead of 



66 



CHBIST*S RESURRECTION. 



being allured in any respect by the protection of the rulers and 
nobles of the world, they receive, wherever they show their 
countenances and broach their cause, scarcely any thing but 
contempt, insult, threatening, imprisonment, scourging, and 
death. Men that started from concerted measures of avarice, 
and schemes of applause from the governors of nations, could 
not, all, long have pocketed this sheer emptiness of disappoint- 
ment, and all this catalogue of evils and death into the bargain. 

Is it suspected that they were warmed into a forgetfulness of 
the main subject, by the activity, the promises and dangers of 
distinct and collateral pursuits? A practice of this nature it is 
possible to engraft on the principles of human nature. Ma- 
homet's military glory and activity were quite sufficient, accord* 
ing to the laws of human action, to nourish his zeal and perse- 
verance towards the close of his life, even on the supposition 
that he commenced his course from entirely different motives. 
But it ought to be remembered, that the disciples of Christ 
had none of the activity, the splendor, or renown of a hero, to 
gather up all reflections to the present moment and impending 
pressures of futurity; and to make them forget what was the 
primary and professed object of their undertaking. Were the 
disciples impostors, they kept the only thing which could have 
been the most galling and teasing to their feelings always be- 
fore their eye; and, wonderful indeed ! they never sought to taste 
of the least solace uiider this image of their hypocrisy, in all the 
various expedients of human contrivance. 

Thus, my brethren, if the apostles were not acting in the 
cause they propagated as honest men, seriously convinced that 
what they affirmed was the truth, they all acted a part the most 
singular and without a parallel in the whole history of man. 
It proceeded from such motives as no other ever practised upon ? 
and on these motives it was pursued with a constancy of which 
the most engaging and profitable inducements have seldom 
furnished us an example. The poor, the despised, the perse* 
cuted apostles, take up, knowingly and deliberately, a most die- 



Christ's resurrection. 



67 



reputable and execrated topic, the resurrection of a crucified 
impostor; about this they all agree at once; honor does not in* 
duce them to propagate it, wealth does not bribe them, security 
does not allure them ; on the other side, poverty hangs upon 
them, imprisonments arrest them, awful deaths thin their num- 
bers, and yet to the last they are zealous and unshaken. Hence, 
christians, I am forced to allow, that to have thus pursued 
such a conduct, as supposing them disingenuous they must, 
have done, would have been to counteract, in their instances, 
in the most violent manner, and for a long tract of time, the 
constituent principles of action in human nature — on which 
mankind in all ages have judged that men are to act , and which 
they have never been known in a single instance so far to 
pervert. 

That, however, they were so far perverted by the apostles of 
of our holy religion I would now demonstrate impossible, by 
an appeal to the principles of human nature in every man*^ 
own breast. Look inwards, my brethren, and examine and 
feel, if it be possible for human nature so far to divest herself 
of her common desires, her rooted inclinations, and her ruling 
propensities? Can you believe that the apostles, plain and 
simple fishermen so lately, are now these strange monsters 
which a supposition of design and imposture so preeminently 
proclaim them to be? Where truth is concerned, indeed, and 
conscience is about to be injured, there are often surprising 
and in all other circumstances incredible heroism and stead- 
fastness displayed by the human mind in encountering and 
overcoming difficulties and dangers of every kind. A sense of 
duty braces and fortifies the mind; and suppresses the rising bent 
of natural inclination, fear, and self-love ;'and thus will keep on 
the arena the wrestler, whatever enemies he has to engage, and 
whatever wounds he may receive while life and strength remain. 
But that independent of this principle, yea, in direct opposition 
to it, under the uneasiness of a guilty conscience, a number of 
common men , all as already remarked, at the* same time, and 



68 



Christ's resurrection. 



about the same affair, should, togethe^ with this burden of a 
mind inwardly dissatisfied with their cause, without any known or 
assignable operating motive, encounter, during years, every hi- 
deous form of danger, sho«ld see their fellows for the same cause 
dismissed from the abodes of light, and dismissed by the most dis- 
graceful and excruciating torments; should be in prisons and un- 
der scourges themselves^ and yet no one of them, during fifty or 
sixty years, should seem to hesitate even in the prosecution of their 
undertaking; but should, on the tide of years, wax bolder and 
bolder, and proclaim more zealously their persecuted truth; 
should swear to it at his own block and on his own cross ; should, 
with his last breath, obtest the world to believe him, and even 
to die thus for the great truth the world must receive. — That a 
number of men, I say, should thus start, and thus for ever act, 
passes all the bounds of credibility with any reasonable man. 
Will any bold champions of the infidel world assume any false 
tenets they please, they may have the most delightful and spe- 
cious, and let them go progagate them through the nations 
far and wide; under the scorn and contempt, till the termina- 
tion of their mortal career, of the virtuous rulers of their own 
country; a pestiferous nuisance by their unheard of novelties in 
the eyes of the learned and great, in all places of the earth; at 
the expense of every convenience, at the combating of so many 
dangers, at the loss of many of their own lives, at the daily 
peril of them all, and then returning let the remainder tell us, 
that it is possible for human natuie to perform such an incredi- 
ble and tragical scene as they feign the witnesses of the resur- 
rection of Christ to have done? In the meantime, we pronounce 
that their stout hearts will fail them, and that notwithstanding 
they practise on the principles of emulation, yet, in their in- 
stance, human nature will declare that she is unable for such a 
soul-abhorrent undertaking. 

My brethren, almost all infidels attack the honesty of the 
apostles. They seem willing to grant that the fact of the ra- 
pid spread of the gospel in the first age of Christianity is evi- 



Christ's resurrection. 



69 



dence that there were a sufficient number of men proclaiming 
it; and they can with no steadfastness assert that the disciples 
could not most undoubtedly ascertain whether Christ, who had 
been absent from them only part of three daySj rose from the 
dead. — But the determined deceit and hardihood of imposture 
of the apostles, they think, introduced that mighty revolution 
of religious sentiment into the world, which took place eigh- 
teen hundred years ago. 

But 1 must urge this view of the subject which we have been 
taking. Could, oh ! infidels, so many men as were employed 
obviously from the very commencement in propagating the 
resurrection of Christ, have been enlisted, by their own volun- 
tary choice, into the ranks of the propagation of a known and 
fabricated falsehood? If there can be in Asia, Europe, Africa, 
or America, so many, savage or refined, learned or unlearned, 
collected together to think seriously even of propagating among 
the nations, a known fabrication, then, I will venture, oh! 
enemies of our heavenly born hopes, to stipulate for the chris- 
tian world that they will renounce their faith. And I will ven- 
ture upon another proposal. Supposing so many men to start 
in any manner whatsoever which exhibits the fact, if each and 
all of them, for years, wear countenances of sincerity, speak 
the very feelings of the heart, and die under the robes of their 
solemn mockery, then we shall permit these competitors of the 
apostles to extinguish that star of immortal life which the re- 
surrection of Christ has brought over our world, and to bury 
in the dust those sublime anticipations which our fashioning 
like to his glorious body begets . — But till this takes place, we 
hold, my christian brethren, that the principles of human na- 
ture, in all ages, and under all climes, is bearing silent testi- 
mony, solid as the foundations of the earth, and unextinguish- 
able as is the light of the sun, to the character of the witnesses 
of Christ's resurrection, and to the divine cause in which they 
were engaged. 
7 

If* Mb 



70 



Christ's resurrection. 



A word more, my brethren. About any matter of fact of 
importance, all the connected circumstances have a powerful 
influence in regulating and confirming our assent. But as 
connected with every other affair there is no instance in which 
they conduce so much to the establishment of the main point 
as in that of the resurrection of Christ. Could more suitable 
and worthy ends be proposed to be attained by an event, or 
could they be better proportioned to its importance, than those 
which are proposed to be attained by, and are set forth as the 
equitable reasons of this great occurrence? The redemption 
of the world, and the government of the redeemed society by 
him who hath established it, are the dignified and justly pro- 
portioned ends, proclaimed to be attained by the death, and 
miraculous resurrection from the dead of man's mediator. 

Do we attend to the circumstances amidst which this event 
took place? How could Jesus be absent from the tomb whilst 
soldiers were standing over it to prevent the felonious endeav- 
ors of former friends, — in any other way than what we have 
related ? After the affair was over they might easily adopt any 
excuse for their cowardice or inattention, which their own 
ingenuity, or the craft of others might suggest. But are they 
not driven to a most miserable shift, though no doubt they 
adopted the most plausible, to give their story the least ap- 
pearance of coloring? The best that they can say is, "His 
disciples stole him away whilst we slept." Wise men, who, 
though so wrapt up in a profound sleep, that the necessary 
noise of rolling back the stone from the sepulchre could not 
awake, yet heard and saw, in the midst of this their profound 
sleep, and remembered and could tell too, with the morning's 
light, the very conduct and its quality, which the disciples 
of Jesus did lead! — They stole him away whilst we slept! 

Do we attend to the consequences which followed? How 
could the belief of a risen Saviour have so rapidly diffused itself 



CHR1ST 1 S RESURRECTION. 



71 



on all sides, if, besides the disciples having countenances 
beaming with ardor and sincerity on all occasions, they .bad not 
had an evidence correspondent to the extraordinary nature of 
the fact they propagated, always attending them? Nations, 
you know, were subdued at once and kingdoms as in one day, 
by the power and prosperity of the witnesses of Christ's resur- 
rection. To what are we to attribute the unexampled suc- 
cess respecting such an extraordinary cause? Is it not to a 
birth of miracles which succeeded to the great miracle of Christ's 
resurrection in the persons of the apostles, who wrote and 
spake daily of miracles; of miracles too of the most public and 
palpable nature, and which could not but be scrutinized by the 
public in the most particular manner? Did the apostles pro- 
claim the wonder of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, 
and then allege their own sufficiency to work miracles, be as- 
sured that mankind would not admit an imposition to be put 
upon them from men of such high pretensions, and in such a 
serious concern. Enemies in that age of general superstition 
might ascribe the miracles of Christ and of his apostles, to a 
malignant cause, and thus might elude the force of the miracl es 
to produce a conviction in their mind of the truth of the 
doctrines in a subserviency to which it w T as alleged they were 
performed; but since they never denied the fact of their ex- 
istence, the certainty that millions were converted by them 
and always acknowledged their history as even the dictates of 
inspiration, puts it beyond doubt that these miracles did take 
place; and that the unexampled success of the apostles was 
owing to their discerned sincerity in asserting the resurrection, 
and these prominent and congenial operations which could be 
produced by their hand. Yes, the power of working miracles, 
they declared, was in Christ, their crucified but now risen 
Saviour, and they said they received it from him; and all men 
are looking to this long contested cause of half a century's 
standing for the proofs of which it so highly boasts, and this 



72 



Christ's resurrection. 



is given them till in every quarter the morally lame world 
arise and walk. — Our faith, my brethren, is in God : For, it 
is still the voice of heaven which continues, and will to every 
age continue, through these evidences that are bright as the 
robe of the angel, to say, respecting Christ our Saviour, He is 
not here, for he is risen. — Amen. 



DISCOURSE lit* 



ON THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 



Heb. 1:6. Let all the angels of God worship him. 

Many controversies, my brethren, have been agitated in 
the christian world about matters of little moment. Topics 
which early education, in a divided state of the church, has 
engrafted upon our minds, grow up with our years, and, in 
respect to the greater part of professing christians, maintain a 
strength either of independent or of associated importance, far 
beyond that to which enlightened and charitable christians 
can consider them entitled. In the mind of man there is a 
strong and operative principle of self-love, predominating more 
secretly in some than in others, but generally in a higher de- 
gree in the leaders of parties than in other men ; and when this 
principle has been warmed by opposition into action, whatever 
it ha3 once espoused, must be protected, with equal zeal and 
tenacity; and thus these leaders, who have always some re- 
tainers, devote their whole talents and time to subjects which 
appear indeed to be fairly fought into importance, but which 
otherwise could never interfere with christian character, with 
christian duty, nor with christian happiness. The past cen- 
tury and the present have presented perhaps more instances of 
the honesty but frailty of the human mind in this respect, than 
all the ages that have preceded since the christian era. The 
wrangling of the schools, previous to the introduction of the 
proper method of philosophizing, about being and its proper- 

7* 



74 



Christ's divinity. 



ties, lost itself in airy distinctions which no man could under* 
stand ; but after all these absurdities were banished from purely 
philosophical pursuits, the church, in many corners, with aw- 
ful sublimity, held the thunderbolts of her power, her anathe- 
mas, over the heads of those who could not understand the 
distinctions of leading men, and who would not speak and act 
respecting these, as if, in the eye of Providence, they were the 
sum total of present truth. 

But while, with the general voice of the more considerate 
and pious, we regret that christian fellowship is often embitter- 
ed or interrupted by a zeal that outstrips knowledge, we can • 
not agree with some, that all controversy is foreign to Chris- 
tianity. The zeal of the prophets, the edge of the expressions 
of the Prince of peace himself, the attitudes of Paul in his 
fighting the good fight of faith, and the common feelings of all 
parties of christians, show that we ought not tamely to permit 
the foundations to be destroyed. 

There is no truth, however clear, which has not had its op- 
ponents. The being of a God, the existence of the material 
world, the immortality of our souls, the divinity of the scrip- 
tures, have all been denied : and that some of the most impor- 
tant truths which are contained in these scriptures would be 
denied, is what every reflecting man, from the principles of 
human nature and from his knowledge of its tendencies, would 
be ready to predict: nor is a continued and determined oppo- 
m to them, any presumption against their truth, any more 
than a continued and bitter opposition is a presumption that 
the scriptures are not the word of God, or that God himself 
loes not exist. The being of a God is a fundamental truth 
hroughout the universe, the existence of the material world 
is a fundamental truth to man that is its inhabitant, the im- 
mortality of intellectual natures is a fundamental truth to all 
them who dread annihilation; and the sun is not more neces- 
sary in the centre of the planetary system, than is the light of 
knowledge, respecting the character of Christ, to his church. 



Christ's divinity. 



75 



The opponents of the divinity of our Saviour may think that 
our error is but an error of the judgment, and not of the heart; 
and, therefore, like other errors of the kind, to be supposed 
entertained without depravity and alienation from God: but 
let us suppose that our side is true, and that this truth is sup- 
ported by evidence. 

We would not restrict the mercy of God, but if he did love 
us as our views suppose, if our Saviour be as glorious as we 
believe, if he humbled himself, as we think we see that he did, 
if he has bound us to his Father and to himself by so many 
expressions of authority as are scattered throughout every page 
of his word, and if he has sanctioned all the laws of faith and 
the covenant of his church, as we understand, by the sanctions 
of eternal life, and eternal misery, themselves being judges, 
would they not suppose us more vile, if we did not endeavor to 
defend these doctrines, than they can suppose the doctrines 
themselves lo be erroneous? Take away the divinity of Christ 
and that which is necessarily connected with it, his atonement, 
and is not its very life, in our view of Christianity, destroyed? 
There are indeed no men who have illustrated the relations of 
moral agents and who have spoken of the extent and purity of 
the moral law, to better purpose, than those who believe in the 
divinity of the Saviour; and there are no men whose lives have 
been more hreproachable; but take out of their system of re- 
ligious thoughts, their view of the character of the Son of 
God and of his work, and you leave them with the whole uni- 
verse essentially changed ; God is not the same, his govern- 
ment is not the same, their motives to action are not the same, 
and their prospects are not the same. Of all the controver- 
sies that can arise among professing christians, there is none 
that, can approximate the singular preeminence of this contro- 
versy. Though the opponents of the doctrine of Christ's di- 
vinity rest secure in the confidence with which they entertain 
their sentiments; yet, they must see, what, we think, from their 
own familiarity with the Saviour as a mere man, they are apt to 



76 



Christ's divinity. 



overlook in respect to us, That we dare not deny the Lord 
who bought us, but must defend his cause. 

In deciding any controversy it is necessary that there be 
some fundamental principles in which both parties are agreed. 
Now, in prosecuting this controversy, we declare, that it is our 
belief, that it cannot be decided, but by the authority of revela- 
tion. To presume that we can decide it upon principles of 
natural religion, is to suppose that we know the will of God 
independently of any revelation, and that revelation itself is a 
superfluity. Indeed, so obvious is it, that this question must 
be decided by revelation, that cur opponents seem to concede 
this to us. So obvious a principle is it that if God be reveal- 
ing himself to us, he will give a fetter account of his charac- 
ter and actions, than we can by the utmost stretch of reflec- 
tion acquire; it is only after we have lost ourselves m the dif- 
ficulties of our subject, that we can venture, even implicitly, 
to deny it. Unitarians do, indeed, insist, purely from the 
dictates of reason, that it is impossible for three persons to 
subsist in one essence ; but the weight which they obviously 
lay upon this principle, is to free themselves the more success- 
fully, from certain views and expressions of scripture with 
which the Trinitarians press them. 

The leading object, brethren, which God has in view in re- 
vealing himself to man is to preserve the purity of religious 
worship. The adoration of the one God is the first and fun- 
damental commandment to which all others are subservient; 
and to guard men against idolatry is the very end for which 
the prophets and inspired men were sent by that God, who 
says that he will not give his glory to another. Indeed if a 
religion were to encourage idolatry by the whole tenor of its 
communications, we might at once state, that it overturns its 
own purposes, and that it cannot be true. 

But in all the nations where the religion of Christ was about 
to be propagated, idolatry was established and rendered endear- 
ing to the people, by the beauties of poetical composition, by 



Christ's divinity. 



the splendor of consecrated temples, and by the costly rituals 
on which they were in the habit of attending; and the falseGods 
themselves whom they adored, sprung up among them from 
their renowned warriors and legislators. These had all a hu- 
man origin; and a revelation was required that would clearly 
state God's holy jealousy, and mark what characters were to be 
adored and what it would be blasphemy to worship. 

There is no character spoken of in the scriptures, in respect 
to which, men were eminently in danger of falling into an 
idolatrous adoration, except that of the Messiah. This char- 
acter, however, had been so long expected, so many figures of 
him had been displayed, and so many advantages had been pro- 
posed to arise from his government, that, when he appeared, 
if he surrounded his path with a train of miracles, died, rose 
again from the dead, and ascended into heaven, men could 
scarce refrain from adoring him. 

But, my brethren, if he be only a mere creature, all this 
splendid train of events in. his history, can never entitle him 
to religious homage, but, in the revelation which is given, 
calls for precautionary admonitions and warnings in 'every 
page not to raise that adoration which belongs to the great 
God, to any creature however beneficent. The whole of 
revelation, my christian brethren, instead of suspending 
the thunders of divine vengeance over the gross idolatry of 
the heathen, which by the natural progress of society in sci- 
ence and knowledge, might, in some degree, have begun to 
totter, and which could by no means stand long before the de- 
claration, I will have no other Gods before me, ought to have 
directed its energies against this germ of idolatry which grows 
out of its own husbanding, and which, if not fully and distinct- 
ly reprobated, will rob God of his glory till the end of time. 

But instead of this, what do the scriptures do? — They begin 
with the declaration, at the time of the giving the law to Israel, 
fly name is in him, whilst yet this name has been no other- 
wise explained than by, Almighty God, or I am that T ajp* 



78 



Christ's divinity. 



When the church was provided with a system of praise, she 
was taught to speak of him as the Son of God, as God whose 
throne is forever and ever, and as the Lord to whom it is said, 
sit thou at my right hand. Isaiah, in the most solemn circum- 
stances, has to tell us that his name is to be called Emmanuel, 
and Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting 
Father, and the Prince of peace. Daniel proclaims him to be 
the Ancient of days; Micah calls him the ruler in Israel whose 
goings forth are from of old, even from everlasting; and Zach- 
ariah pronounces him the man who is God's fellow. 

These are extremely dangerous expressions to announce for 
the regulation of the worship of nations, which, for so many 
ages, had laid hold upon the slightest encouragement to idol- 
atry. One would have been apt to think that the God of Is- 
rael who had chosen a particular people for the express pur- 
pose of preserving the worship of the one God unadulterated, 
would, in some way or other, have restricted the tendency of 
this language respecting the Messiah, so that he might not 
have been stript of his peculiar glory, by its being bestowed 
upon another. But what is very remarkable in the revelations 
of the. Old Testament, is, the longer the Spirit continues to 
speak on the subject, the more bold and unrestricted is the 
language used, to press this Messiah forward as an object of 
adoration. The nations must do him service, and kiss the Son 
least he be angry, in the songs of their praise; but, at last, he 
comes to his temple as his own house, and receives the adora- 
tion to which he who sits between the cherubims is entitled. 
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the 
way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly 
come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom 
ye delight in: behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts. 
Mai. 2:7. 

But if the writers of the old Testament all conspired to 
bring forward the Messiah as an object of that adoration which 
belongs to God alone, let us see how the more clear light of 



Christ's divinity. 



79 



the New Testament directs our conscience upon the subject. 
Undoubtedly, if Christ be God, he will be worshipped in the 
New Testament, both by men and angels; but, if he be not 
God, while very eminent language may be used respecting 
him, yet, the diamonds of the crown of heaven will be guard- 
ed, so that no one shall wear them, but the eternal and uncre- 
ated God who alone has a right to have them upon his head. 
But wonderful to tell, the very forerunner cannot think himself 
worthy to stoop down and to unloose the latchet of his shoe; 
while the Messiah himself, who reveals his Father <Mys that he 
came down from heaven, that he is in heaven, that his Father 
workelh hitherto and he works, that his Father and he are one, 
that he hath given him to have life in himself; and while he 
receives homage from all that offer it. An angel will say to 
the most venerable and beloved of inspired men, I am thy fel- 
low servant, worship God : but when there was the greatest 
danger of enthusiasm in his cause setting an example which 
men would forever follow, as Jesus stood the risen Saviour before 
the disciples, and Thomas exclaimed, my Lord and my God, 
he took no care to correct the expression, as if it were un- 
guarded; but, on the other hand, received it, as that to which 
he was entitled. Indeed, he did believe himself to be enti- 
tled to adoration, and adoration equal with his Father: for 
when he was about to call the nations of the earth from their 
idolatry and superstition, and to bring them under the light of 
the truth of heaven, he said to his disciples, Go preach the 
gospel to every creature, baptising them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. He will not 
permit an individual to enlist under his banners, but him who 
bows in the solemnity of the initiating ordinance, equally to 
the Father, Son and Spirit; as if to preclude, in future ages, 
any dispute about the genuineness of this sentiment, There 
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and 
the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. 



80 



Christ's divimtt. 



The apostles and evangelists rise far above the prophets and 
even Christ himself, in their declarations, that the Son of God 
is to be worshipped. As the tree of revelation grows and its 
peculiar fruits look more distinctly displayed to the eye, that 
adoration, which the apostle emphatically calls the fruit of the 
lip, clusters on every branch as belonging to Christ. So the 
disciples in taking the first preparatory step in the great work 
to which they had been appointed, prayed, saying, thou Lord 
who knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two 
thou hast chosen; and Stephen who led the way to the fail h 
and devotion of martyrs, said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 
Indeed, to the name of Jesus every knee does bow and every 
tongue does confess, of things in heaven, and things in earth, 
and things under the earth. Says our text, let all the angels 
worship him; and the whole of the heavenly host, in the book 
of the Revelation, worship equally him who sitteth upon the 
throne and the Lamb. It is astonishing, in what climaxes of 
praise, this adoration is presented. Unto him who loved us, 
and washad us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God and his Father ; to him be glory 
and dominion for ever and ever. And every creature which is 
in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as 
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard J saying, Bless- 
ing, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the 
throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And they cried 
with a loud voice, saying, salvation to our God who sitteth 
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. 

It may be said that it is only a secondary worship that in 
these passages, by all created existences, is given to the Son 
of God. But we have no hint of this in all revelation ; there is 
the same ecstacy when the mind is turned towards him that 
sitteh upon the throne, or towards the Lamb. In reality, this 
inferior kind of adoration, which in the writings of men we 
find so often mentioned, is nothing else than a figment which 



Christ's divtkity. 



81 



false systems of religion have led them to adopt. We acknow- 
ledge an homage among men which our manners easily inter- 
pret; but that homage which is directed from earth to heaven, 
must, if there is any meaning in it, acknowledge necessities 
and dependence on the one hand, and omniscience and infin- 
ite care on the other. Adoration supposes an actual inter- 
course carried on intelligibly between the parties ; we confide in 
a knowledge which at the moment attends to us, and in a care 
which cannot be disappointed in its exertions for our welfare. 
The adoration of saints, or angels, or any mere created exis- 
tence, is the most abandoned rejection of reason that ever su- 
perstition adopted ; for while there are millions in different 
places and different situations in the world, who are filling 
their mouths with arguments, it is supposed, that a mere crea- 
ture, whose existence is confined to a point in the creation, 
may yet, like the great God himself, see millions of objects, in 
different places, all at the same instant of time; and also ef- 
fectually attend to them. If Christ be not God, those only act 
a consistent part who intrepidly and boldly assert that Paul 
and other writers of the New Testament often reason incon- 
clusively, and who refuse all adoration except to the one God 
the Father. If the Son be not divine, he is not entitled to di- 
vine homage; — but we apply our reasoning to the case in 
hand. Christ is worshipped, he is worshipped by men and 
angels; he was worshipped in the days of his flesh, and is to 
be worshipped till the end of time. — Such are the clear and re- 
peated appointments of heaven. Why so? He has the omni- 
science, the omnipresence, and omnipotence of Deity. 

Indeed the great God knew that adoration could not be con- 
sistently and contentedly given to his Son, by those whose 
religion was purified by the fountain of revelation, unless his 
character were presented with the attributes and properties 
which belong to the divine nature. Hence not only were the 
prophets commanded to speak of him as God's fellow, as the 
Ancient of days, as Emmanuel, as the everlasting Father, and 
8 



8£ 



Christ's divinity. 



God whose throne is for ever and ever; but the New Testa- 
ment writers were directed to present him, more especially, as 
God, as having God's attributes, and as performing God's 
works. By their declarations are the lights thrown around us 
which send off to an infinite distance all the darkness and idol- 
atry which otherwise would necessarily seem to attend the 
worship of the Son of God. 

We proceed in addition to what we have heard. — Feed the 
church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. — 
Paul, when he begaD to speak about his Saviour, sometimes 
became most deeply interested, and his words flowed in the 
most ecstatic eloquence. This was the case when he was 
taking a final farewell of the elders of the church of Ephesus ; 
and when, by the spirit of inspiration, he saw the grievous 
wolves that were to enter not sparing the flock; and amongst 
his last words, to melt them, and to gain them, he says to 
these elders, Feed the church of God which he hath purchased 
with his own blood. It is supposed that the word, God, was 
not originally in this expression of the deepest earnestness from 
the apostle Paul ; because it is not found in a few ancient man- 
uscripts. But the form of his eloquence which is so fair, is mu- 
tilated, and its life departs, when we alter the reading, which 
all the most ancient and authentic manuscripts contain, and 
which is so like that wonderful expression in his epistle to the 
Romans, respecting Jesus Christ, which he spake as he re- 
flected on his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh : 
« who is God over all, blessed for ever, Amen." 

A similar observation is applicable to that language, Great 
is the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh; 
where it has also been stated that an unhallowed hand of inter- 
polation had been successfully employed ; and to the celebra- 
ted passage in John's first epistle, There are three that bear 
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, 
s and these three are one. The anti-trinitarians imagine no ju- 
dicious critic would be willing to allow a place to this last 



Christ's divinity. 



83 



passage, In the page of inspiration. This much we must re- 
mark, that what they tear out obviously leaves a chasm; while, 
it may be asserted, that the trinitarians have never, in fact, 
been detected in the very act of amending the originals of rev- 
elation to aid their argument, whereas their opponents 
are by no means scrupulous, in laying their hand on 
the sacred originals, and erasing from them every text 
which their ingenuity may suggest to them probably to be an 
interested amendment. It has been alleged that we alter scrip- 
ture; but on the evidence of experience, and as opposed to 
gratuitous suggestions from our opponents, we hold that we 
are immaculate. The trinitarians need not be afraid of the 
curse of God, " Whosoever shall add to this book, to him 
shall be added the plagues which are contained therein for 
though the whole of their ranks were reviewed there will not 
be found a single name that actually has been detected in offer- 
ing the strange fire. But on the other hand, my brethren, the 
unitarians never make a new translation into any language, or 
give to the world an edition of the originals; but you hear 
them grumbling about innumerable passages as of doubtful 
authenticity, and tearing out others with as much confidence 
of their being spurious, as if they could refer to some histori- 
cal records of the impious alterations. There have been some 
of their belief in every age since the christian era, and nearly 
equally without scruples about erasing what is particularly dis- 
pleasing; and hence it is a thing necessarily to be expected, 
that some passages, which are supposed to enter vitally into 
the controversy between us and them, should be doubted, and 
that others should be discarded,. 

But there are, my brethren, by the New Testament writers, as 
a proof of his divinity, the attributes of God, ascribed to Christ : 
eternity in these words, « In the beginning was the Word, and 
the Word was with God, and the Word was God unchange- 
ableness in these, " before Abram was I am ; I am Alpha and 
Omega, the first and the last.:" omnipresence in these, " Lo! lam 



84 



chkist's divinity. 



with you always:' 1 omnipotence in these, " upholding all tilings 
by the word of his power:" universal dominion in these, "all 
things are put under him, and there is nothing which is not put 
under him, God the Father excepted, who put all things under 
him :" and sovereignty in these, " for as the Father raiseth up the 
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom 
he will." — These attributes of deity are, indeed, more frequently 
implied than expressed. So, where it*s said, that the Word was 
made flesh and dwelt among us; that God sent forth his Son, 
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were 
under the law; who being in the form of God and thought it not 
robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation, and 
took upon him the form of a servant ; and though he was rich, yet 
for our sakes he became poor, we have an evidence that pre- 
existence is predicated of him, and that it was by a sovereign 
act of his own, that he assumed our nature and appeared as 
our mediator. When we see him acting on the principle in the 
days of his flesh, that he knows what is in man, and when we 
now behold him in the administration of his universal kingdom, 
sending the angels as ministering spirits, superintending the 
faithfulness and love of his followers, examining their wants 
and advocating their cause, his omnipresence necessarily ap- 
pears. And when we reflect that the Father judgeth no man, 
but hath committed all judgment to the Son ; there is so obvi- 
ously omniscience required to fit him for this station, that one 
might say, solemn as is tjhe general judgment in itself, and so- 
lemn as it is presented in revelation, accounts after all must 
be settled, if he be a limited creature, without knowledge 
either to condemn or acquit. A judge who is to bring into 
judgment for every thought and for every secret thing, who is 
to try the heart and the reins of the children of men, can be no 
other than the omniscient God. 

But there are divine works which the New Testament as- 
cribes to Christ. He is the creator; " and without him was 
not any thing made that is made," u For by him were all things 



CHRIST^ Divmnr. 



€5 



created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and in- 
visible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principali- 
ties, or powers, all things were created by him and for him.'" — 
The first of these expressions is found in the beginning of 
John's gospel; and as Matthew and Luke had both written 
before John, and given an account of the lineage and birth of 
Christ according to his human nature, John will follow some- 
thing of their manner, and present us, not with the history of 
the child horn, but of the Son given; and so the Word is in 
the beginning with God, is God, without him nothing is made 
that is made; but afterwards he becomes flesh and dwells 
amongst us. What imprudence in the beloved disciple, if 
Jesus be only a mere man, after the prophets had spoken so 
unguardedly, after Christ himself had said so much that might 
be followed with the most dangerous consequences; and after 
Paul had settled it, by the character of his writings, that he 
was to be received as God over all blessed for ever, amen, to 
commence that book, in which he was to bring forward Christ's 
expressions, about coming down from heaven, about being in 
heaven, about being before Abraham, about having life in him- 
self, about being one with his Father, in which he was to be 
addressed by, my Lord and my God, with such an introduction 
as he here makes! The very words which he uses are applied 
to no created existence. The man who was born of a woman , 
who had flesh and bones, and was crucified, retires, in these 
introductory conceptions of John, from all created forms, and 
appeal's, — what is he? — the word of God, in the beginning with 
God, yea, God, and all things are made by his hand. In John's 
conceptions, his Saviour, though he becomes flesh and taberna- 
cleslamong men, is originally, no other than he who dwells in 
light inaccessible and full of glory. 

But as he created all things so he upholds them. In him all 
things consist; He upholdeth all things by the word of his pow- 
er. — If these expressions were spoken respecting the Father, 
their philosophy and sublimity would be marked by our oppo- 




86 



Christ's divinity. 



nents and presented as an argument for the divinity of the 
scriptures, arising from the sublimity of their language. In- 
deed, while the expressions are inimitably sublime, I must re- 
mark, that it is blasphemous to refer them to a mere creature. 
Let us try the last of these expressions as appropriated to cre- 
ated energy. The construction in which the words lie, forbids 
their application to God the Father. Whom shall we bring 
forward with such a fountain of power and with such a facility 
of communication? Shall we imagine them appended to Moses 
or Elias, to Paul, or to the angel Gabriel? — The words suit 
not any creature . They remind us of that omnific voice, Let 
there be light, and it was. 

But it may be said we fill the scriptures with mysteries, and 
militate against philosophy. But such is our case, my breth- 
ren, we cannot avoid mystery. The greatest mystery of all to 
me would be, since it must be so abhorrent to revelation to 
present a mere creature as God, since it would be so easy to 
establish the truth on this subject; and since there was only 
one character mentioned in the whole scripture that men were 
eminently in hazard of being beguiled by, that, instead of the 
truth being told about this character, the very reverse is not 
only alluded to and stated in innumerable passages, but it is 
interwoven with the whole plan of the divine government, and 
with that salvation, as scripture would seem to state it, which 
is bestowed upon the meanest of the saints. 

The alcoran is an honest book compared with the bible; for 
there the distinction of persons in the one godhead is rejected : 
reason is a better guide than revelation; for she has a greater 
prospect, by the light of science, of dispelling the clouds of 
superstition ; and of all things in the universe, that are inapt to 
accomplish their own ends, infinite wisdom has been the least 
successful in guarding her own honors. 

For, my brethren, Christ will be believed to be God, and will 
be worshipped, till the end of time. In every age almost all 
who have read the scriptures, believe that it is stated in them, 



•CHRIST 8 DIVINITY. 



87 



that our Saviour is God. There are some exceptions, and a 
few of these are men of very considerable talents and learning; 
but they are not more than we would expect to meet with in 
this part of that great field of controversy which encompasses 
the paths of men. — The operations of Providence, my brethren, 
are translating into all languages the original books of inspira- 
tion ; they are carried into all lands in the hand of those servants 
who have the most august view of their Saviour's character; 
who cannot utter the word salvation without connecting it 
with an omnipotent procurer; and who, as if to confound the 
philosophy that would lay a hasty hand upon any portion that 
has fair claims to be considered a part of inspiration, triumph- 
antly bear along those passages which criticism has supposed 
that she has expunged. The world, at present, has something 
of the christian activity of the days of the apostles ; but it is 
all under trinitarian banners. 

We know there are many objections started to the divinity 
of Christ; some founded on the supposed absurdity attending 
the doctrine itself, and others arising from what is said in scrip- 
ture about Christ's inferiority to the Father. We acknowledge 
that we cannot comprehend the doctrine of the trinity. It is a 
mystery far surpassing the comprehension of man. But so is 
eternity, so is self-existence, and so is omnipresence. Yea, so 
is almost every thing in nature : The principle of the attraction 
of cohesion, magnetism, and gravitation, the connexion between 
mind and matter, and the manner of perception of external 
objects. It is but little we know of ourselves or all that is 
around us; and we may surely grant that when the eternal, self- 
existent, and infinite being, reveals himself, there will be 
something about his purely revealed character, that will as 
infinitely transcend our capacity, as do his eternity and im- 
mensity in his natural character. But, my brethren, if we can 
leason in any respect from analogy, the absolute simplicity of 
the divine existence, both in nature and in personality, is not 
lecommended to us by any thing that exists. There are certain 



88 



Christ's divinity. 



elementary substances, simple and unmixed in themselves, 
but they always coexist in nature with other elements to make 
up the actual unities which creation presents. The light of the 
sun has several primary rays, the particles of heat have not all 
the same degree of refrangibility, the air has three elements in 
its composition; water, though so like an unity, is made up 
of distinct substances, every vegetable has three elements, 
every animal is composed of matter and the principle of anima- 
tion, and all the stones which form the great body of our earth, 
are formed of several primary elements, which cannot be sepa* 
rated without breaking up the very properties which are so 
distinct and have been so permanent. The elements of the 
divine character, are, indeed, transcendent in their distinction 
and union. All other things being created, their unity arises 
from the combination of distinct natures; but the godhead, 
being uncreated and eternal, there is only one simple element 
of nature in it, and the distinctions, different from all othe? 
beings, arise from the form of subsistence : a mystery unlike to 
any thing else, and which men always degrade and injure when 
they would attempt to explain it, or to place it on any other 
foundation than the dictates of revelation. 

Christ is inferior to the Father as mediator. In this charac- 
ter he is his father's servant, he is clothed with human nature, 
the Word is made flesh, the Son of God is born of a woman, he 
that was in the form of God puts on the fashion of a man, he 
grows in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and 
man, he is hungry, he is weary, he rejoices, he weeps, he prays, 
he complains, he suffers, he dies. When we join the company 
of the Sou of man there is nothing within the whole circle of 
human duty or privilege which we do not see him perform. 
That he should say, his Father sent him, that he does not do 
his own will, that he can do nothing of himself, that his Father 
is greater than he, that the Father heareth him always, that he 
could send his angels to strengthen him, that he is an heir 
under him, and that at last he will surrender his kingdom to 



Christ's divinity. 



89 



him, are expressions which he ought to use, and ideas 
which he ought to repeat and vary by every form of lan- 
guage, to let his true character be known, and to explain 
the circumstances of his history as they really took place. 
Nothing can be more astonishing than that the adversaries of 
Christ's divinity should insist on the innumerable statements 
in scripture which present Christ as inferior to the Father, 
when we grant, that, although it be clearly and fully stated that 
he is divine, yet, the general line of the whole business of the 
mediator, was to act on earth as man, and to state what were 
the results of his acting in this character. The unitarians in 
laying hold of one side of Christ's character and denying the 
other, remind us of the modern Jews, who, to reconcile the 
prophecies respecting their Messiah both suffering and reign- 
ing, imagine two Messiahs, the one tentative and unsuccess- 
ful, and the other persevering and triumphant. We believe 
that both characters meet in the one Messiah; that Christ 
both suffers and reigns; but his sufferings are correlative to a 
state of humiliation, and his dominion is correlative to a state 
of exaltation : and we believe that his character qualified him for 
even the extremes of both these states. As man he was born, 
as the Word he was in the beginning ; as man he was laid in a 
cradle, as God he was worshipped there; as man he grew in 
wisdom and in stature, as God he was the same yesterday, to- 
day and for ever; as man he was tempted of Satan, as God he 
said, Get thee behind me, for it is written thou shalt. worship 
the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve; as man he 
was baptised in Jordan, as God he kept the fan of vengeance 
in his hand thoroughly to purge his floor; as man he walked 
about the regions of Galilee, as God he called his disciples 
and said to them, I will make you fishers of men ; as man he 
was wearied and sat on Jacob's well, as God he told the wo- 
man of Samaria all that ever she did ; as man he attended the 
marriage at Galilee, as God he turned the water into wine ; as 
man he was hungry, as God he fed five thousand on a few 




90 



Christ's divinity. 



loaves and fishes; as man he wept at the grave of Lazarus, as 
God he said, Lazarus come forth ; as man he was in agony in 
Gethsemene, as God he instituted the sacred ordinance of the 
New Testament passover; as man he expired on the cross, as 
God, when in death, he wrote a charter for life, and rose tri- 
umphantly over death; as man he was seen ascending, as God 
he made good his way, leading captivity captive ; as man he is 
our forerunner entered into heaven, as God he is heir of all 
things; as man he presents the sacrifice of himself within the 
veil, as God he sits on the right hand of the majesty on high, 
angels, authorities, and powers being made subject to him; as 
man he is the head of his body the church, as God he reigns in 
Zion, and has all things put under his feet. 

But while there are two distinct natures in Christ they are 
united in one person. This is my beloved Son in whom 1 am 
well pleased. He that ascended is the same that descended, 
first into the lower parts of the earth, and then ascended far 
above all heavens, that he might fill all things. For he hath 
appointed a day in the which he will judge the woTld in righte- 
ousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Looking for 
that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God 
and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Two natures and one person in Christ: — A mystery again! 
But it is a mystery not like that of the trinity, where the divine 
nature alone is concerned; it is a mystery, which, as the 
properties of a creature are connected with it, comes recom- 
mended to us, by all the individualities of organized existences 
in the universe; all are unions of different natures. All or- 
ganized existences derive their perfection and are adapted to 
the end of their formation from the combination of elements 
that are dissimilar; and Christ's character is adapted to the 
accomplishment of the great work which was appointed to 
him, by his being the omnipotent and adorable creator of all 
things, and by his being man who is both capable of suffering 
and of dying. 



Christ's divinity. 



91 



We would not have Christ considered to be God by all 
men. The infidels, who deny the authority of his religion and 
who acknowledge that Jesus of Nazareth did exist, and gave 
origin to that religion which bears his name, can consider 
him in no other light than as a man, artful, eloquent, success- 
ful, and revolutionizing. The Jews themselves are in every 
respect greatly excusable, if he was only a mere man; for be- 
fore them he pertinaciously adhered to language which they 
understood to claim divinity, and made himself undoubtedly 
in their presence equal to God. Indeed his whole ministra- 
tion was criminal, and polluted their land, their city, and 
their temple, if he was a man only. Moses, their lawgiver, 
was afraid to speak in his own name, and always bespeaks the 
ear of piety, with, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying; he 
trembled at the introduction of idolatry, and said, Thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. 
Their prophets had no other spirit than that of their great law- 
giver. But Jesus had no scruples of introducing idolatry 
among them, and of condemning them to the fire of hell if they 
refused to follow him. Ye believe in God, said he to the 
Jews, believe also in me. For the Father judgeth no man, 
but hath committed all judgment to the Son; that all men 
should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. But 
Jesus answered them, my Father worketh hitherto, and I 
work : therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him ; because 
he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God 
was his Father, making himself equal with God. 

Our Saviour, my brethren, is not to be blamed for forming 
a contrast to Moses and all the prophets in their zeal for the 
glory of the God of Israel. Revelation is all of a piece as it 
respects Christ. It is a great army of prophets, of priests of 
the most high God, of princes, and of seers, collecting to- 
gether, under the Old Testament dispensation, to destroy the 
mouldering idols of idolatry, and yet to place, permanent as 



92 



chbist's divinity. 



is time, and unfading as is the sun, an object before men, 
clothed in all the attributes of human nature, to be adored. 
The New Testament takes up the determination received from 
so many voices, and at the very first begins to add every fea- 
ture that can awe imagination and instil hope. Wise men 
worship, and angels sing, glory to God in the highest, peace 
on earth, and good will towards men; the mother nurses in 
Bethlehem him whose goings forth were from of old, even 
from everlasting, and of whose kingdom there shall be no end ; 
and Zacharias prophesies to the infant John, and thou, child, 
shalt be called the prophet of the highest; for thou shalt go 
before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. The whole 
disciples, listening to his claims and attending to his miracles, 
by sea or land, on the mountains or in the valleys, keep 
up the sound of adoration, Lord save, thou hast the words o^ 
eternal life, Lord thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I 
love thee, My Lord and my God. — The universe, my brethren, 
is startled and does homage when the moment of the fulness 
of time arrives. — The sun looked on the death of Moses as 
a common occurrence, of Abraham, of David, and of Isaiah. 
Though perhaps some of these were sawn asunder, the earth 
felt no commotion, the graves maintained their silence, and 
the veil of God's temple knew no violence. But this is no 
common death, it is not the death of an inspired legislator, of 
a prophet, of a mere friend of God ; for the sun is darkened, 
the earth shakes to its foundations, the graves are emptied by 
the entrance of the breath of life, and the veil of the temple is 
rent from top to bottom. — And this strain of adoration, and 
of homage, which, from the beginning the world has circula- 
ted from age to age, the disciples of Jesus adopted, and 
wherever they went they taught the knee to bow to the name 
of Jesus. And the christian world have bowed, and will for 
ever bow: for our religion should either be discarded as 
blasphemous and idolatrous, or our mediator should be re- 



Christ's divinity. 



93 



ceived as truly divine, the brightness of his Father's glory, 
and the express image of his person. Yes, my brethren, for 
the great God, and the Holy Ghost, if Christ be only a creature, 
is chargeable, immediately and directly, above all others, with 
overspreading our world with this blasphemy. The Holy 
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall 
overshadow thee, therefore, that holy thing which shall be born 
of thee shall be called the Son of the Highest. If this lan- 
guage was to signify that the Ancient of days was appearing 
among men, it was a beautiful and well timed expression which 
announces that the thing which was born, though seemingly 
insignificant, was the Son of the Highest; but if it was to signify 
that human nature was a more immediate effect of divine pow- 
er in Christ than in other men, and so exalting him to divine 
honors ; it was an expression, which is like the tongue of sin- 
ful man, an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. For, my breth- 
ren, no creature, angel or archangel, though new from the 
hand of God, bright as the gold dropt from the furnace which 
formed the hinges of Milton's gates of heaven, can be entitled 
to any of the peculiar honors of Deity. — The opponents of 
Christ's divinity speak highly of the morality of the gospel ; it 
is pure and untainted, say they ; a peculiar blessing to our 
world ; but if morality, in any point of view, respects the rela- 
tions of the creature to his creator, the principles of the scrip- 
tures and their expressions, if Christ be a created existence only, 
are what overturn the very foundations of that moral order 
which is supposed to support the pillars of the divine govern- 
ment throughout the universe, and give to it its sublime char- 
acter. Yes, if other worlds are like ours, if God hath revealed 
himself to them, and told them that all the angels around his 
throne worship one who has been born amongst them, and that 
they must worship him; that they must use expressions in their 
most solemn language, of him being the Lord of all, in whom 
ail things consist, and by whom all things were created in 

heaven and in earth, the universe, which is so fair, and the 
9 



&4 cheat's mvunav. 

perfection of whose physical form is so absolutely finished, has 
been, stnd by its creator himself, turned, in all its moral in- 
habitants, into perpetual idolatry. The most polluted of all 
systems of morality is that which dresses up a creature by 
names, attributes^ works, and stations, to appropriate to itself 
the homage of the Eternal, and which states that all this is the 

doing, Chrough ages and generations, of God himself. But 

enough! 

Revelation is the covenant and promise of God. Its propo- 
sitions may contain mysteries, but cannot inculcate blasphe- 
mies. They may humble the pride of reason, but they cannot 
mislead devotion. — All is well. — Thou Lord Jesus in the be- 
ginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens 
are the works of thine hands; they shall perish but thou re- 
maiuest, and they shall all wax old as a garment, and as a ves- 
ture shalt thou fold them, and they shall be changed ; but thou 
art the same and thy years shall not fail.. The grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the 
Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. 



DISCOURSE IV. 



CHRIST'S SUFFERING WITHOUT THE GATE. 



Heb. 13: 12. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify 
the people with his own bloody suffered without the gate, 

A striking adaptation, my brethren, to all their intended 
relations, subsists amongst the works of God. Every object in 
nature is exactly suited to the circumstances of its condi- 
tion. The beauty and wisdom of its maker are fully perceived 
only when its relations are considered. Not an object in the 
natural world undisturbed by the injurious hand of a sinful 
agent, but smiles on the prosperity of all those with which it 
Is intimately connected ; these bear the same benign aspect to 
those that environ thera; this circle the same to that which en- 
compasses it, till the immense fabric of the universe stands ar- 
rayed in the utmost exactness of harmony and order. In the 
providential dispensations of God the exact subserviency of 
event to event, of series of operations to mighty evolutions, df 
predisposed circumstances to what are to fulfil them, gives us 
the same view of the boundless symmetry established in the 
divine operations. Do we survey the kingdom of grace, con- 
sider it in the predictions and types that, in the first ages of the 
world, and particularly under the Jewish economy, bore a re- 
spect to the displays and realities of New Testament times, 
still we are led to admire the correspondence of one thing to 
another, and to saj of God's works, in wisdom he hath made 
them alL 



96 



Christ's suffering 



What has suggested this introductory train of ideas is the 
view we take of the subject of discourse we have now read to 
you, as we have considered it, not merely in its connexion with 
the immediate context, but as a constituent part of this admi- 
rably arranged, and beautifully constructed epistle. This text, 
we suspect, is often read without the mind being led into a 
just view of all those points of exact correspondence, to which, 
in that delicate and copious contrast that the author must be 
supposed triumphantly to consummate in this epistle, the dis- 
tinguished station of this text towards the close of it, and its 
character as the last touches he puts upon his perfect picture, 
must be supposed to conduct the mind of the more attentive 
and reflecting. 

In the preceding part, my brethren, of this epistle it has been 
shown, That every high priest taken from amongst men must 
offer both gifts and sacrifices unto God : That the Aaronical 
priesthood did offer both gifts and sacrifices, which, however, 
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining 
to the conscience : And that Christ being come, an high priest 
of a greater and more perfect tabernacle, did obtain eternal re- 
demption for us. Already, by the writer of this epistle, have 
these three points been regularly adverted to, and fully de- 
monstrated. 

What, then, the relations of our text lead us to ask, is the 
reason of the apostle's returning here towards the conclusion 
of his epistle, in the midst too of his impressive practical ex- 
hortations and injunctions, to a subject, all the parts of which, 
he hath already apparently exhausted; and in what manner 
does his contrast of the sin-offering of the Jews, and sacrifice 
of Christ here, illustrate, still more clearly than has yet been 
done in preceding points of comparison, the harmony of the 
system of truth, exhibited first in a shadowy, and then in a 
real manifestation? Is it true that the apostle has no higher 
motive for returning to a subject, to which he has done so much 
justice, than, as some commentators would appear to main- 



WITHOUT THE GATE. 



97 



tain, to account for the literal fact of Jesus' crucifixion without 
the gate of Jerusalem? 

When I meditate on the relations of this text; when, in par- 
ticular, I look into the commandment mentioned in the prece- 
ding verse, and which is the hinge of the apostle's argument 
here; a commandment which I recollect their law expressly 
enjoined upon the Jews, — to burn the bodies of their sin-offer- 
ing without the camp of Israel ; I see 1 cannot add to this re- 
collection, a view of Christ's crucifixion on the desecrated 
ground where the anathematized suffered their accursed death, 
without convictions arising, that many have neither fully ex- 
amined the typical system of ancient sacrifices, nor the admira- 
ble and connected structure of this epistle, the design of which 
is to illustrate to Hebrew converts the doctrines of Christianity, 
by leading the mind through the whole field of their own pro- 
phecies and ceremonies of worship, while every prophecy is 
placed by the side of its own event, and every type is read in 
the light of its own antitype. 

If my text, however, my brethren, be the marrow of this won- 
derful epistle — if this epistle collect into a focus all the scat- 
tering rays that presaged the rising sun of righteousness — if 
the whole of the loose tints that wandered on the dark shadows 
of the patriarchal and Mosaic economy, be collected into the 
cloudless noon which warms and fills us with life, as we read 
it — and if my text be to the epistle, like the divine light, that at 
his conversion, emerged, brilliant as the sun, from the noon- 
day that surrounded the author of it, what abilities are ade- 
quate to the task that is now before me? Who can travel 
through the lines of its relations ; show it in all the bearings of 
its respective parts ; and do justice to the general sentiment 
which the proposition conveys? This text, oh God, leads us 
to interpret the principal emblems thou sawest proper to insti- 
tute previous to the fulness of time; to investigate the extent of 
the efficacy of the great sacrifice of the New Testament ; and 

to establish from the treasures of revelation, the general senti- 

9* 



98 



Christ's suffering 



raent which is here so prominently propounded. Thy grace, 
oh God, is sufficient for us; and under thy direction I would 
first, investigate the import of the respective clauses of this text; 
and then, secondly, demonstrate the general truth which it 
declares. 

We begin our inquiries by ascertaining the import of the 
clause which the immediate context presses upon our notice, — 
For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the 
sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp : 
Wherefore Jesus suffered without the gate. 

In a preceding part of this epistle, let me remark, we are ex- 
pressly informed that Christ, who is here said to have suffered 
without the gate, was constituted a priest, not after the order 
of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec. Now both Aaron 
and Melchisedec, we have seen, must be supposed to offer both 
gifts and sacrifices; and Melchisedec's oblations being merely 
typical as well as Aaron's, could make a typical atonement 
only. What then is peculiarly taught us in this epistle by 
Christ's being made a priest, not after the order of the former, 
but after that of the latter? 

Aaron was the priest of the Jewish nation only, but Mel- 
chisedec, who lived four hundred years before the Mosaic 
economy , and to whom Abraham the father of circumcision 
paid tithes, was absolutely a priest without respect to any par- 
ticular people, and adumbrated Christ as the Saviour of the 
Gentiles no less than of the Jews. Had the high priest of our 
profession sprung up under the order of Aaron, as the 
Levitical priesthood was appointed expressly for the Jew- 
ish nation, whom God had chosen from amongst all the na- 
tions of the earth to be, for a time, a separate and a peculiarly 
sanctified people, none could have obtained salvation by 
Christ but the Jews only. In the steps of divine providence 
which led the church through all previous changes and ripened 
her for the fulness of time, Egypt and her first born, at the 
epoch of the passover, strictly represented the world deserving 



WITHOUT THE GATE. 



99 



God's wrath ; and the children of Israel, whose first borh were 
saved by the atonement of the paschal Lamb, and in whom all 
the rest of their brethren found protection, strictly represented 
the members of the true church ; and Aaron and his sons, who 
were chosen to officiate to a people so separated and sanctified, 
could not widen the circle of their relations beyond the de* 
finite character of their original call, and that end to which the 
people for whom they were appointed to minister in the priest's 
office, had been so especially separated. The sons of Levi 
were not shadows before the vision of sinners of mankind sim- 
ply, of a Saviour to be revealed, but they were types of this 
great character, under the circumscribed relations of that cove- 
nant which separated them and their people from the accursed 
nations immediately represented by Egypt ; and wdiich placed 
themselves and their people, as it were, in a city of refuge, till 
the death of their priesthood, and the cessation of their obla- 
tions take place at an appointed time. To the Levites, indeed, 
for whom to be his own, God released the first born to the com- 
monwealth of Israel, — the first born whom he had had a right 
to destroy, but whom he had admitted to be exchanged for the 
Lamb of the passover, tithes are appointed to be paid by all 
the tribes of Israel, as an evidence that it is from the blood of 
atonement they have a right to live ; but while all Israel ac- 
knowledge their dependence upon the priesthood, the means of 
their reconciliation to Deity, in tlie tenth of the increase of 
their hands ; yet, these very characters themselves occupy their 
preeminent station in Israel, only by substitution in the room 
of the first born, the heirs of the inheritance of Jacob; and 
even on this ingrafted stock where we see them, they them- 
selves must acknowledge, that they are only the interior arch of 
that great rainbow, which to the world at large was an emblem 
of the real priesthood and atonement for sin. And, as I may 
so say, Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham : 
For he was yet in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedec met 
him. Melchisedec before the eye of mankind sinners stands 



100 



Christ's suffering 



arrayed in absolute relations ; no nation in respect to him is an 
emblem of our world, and none presents a people separated for 
his peculiar ministrations - his lineage is not marked on any re- 
cord; his office does not date its origin from any epoch of time; 
its exercise is not cut off by predictions and decrees that scatter 
the people whom he serves from the sacred eminence he and 
they occupy; — " He is without father and mother, without de- 
scent, having neither beginning of days nor end of years ; but 
made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually." 

But, my brethren, if Aaron officiated not in the open world, 
but under the cover of a restricted economy; if this cover be 
erected not by his own performances, but by the blood of that 
sacrifice which a particular people, under a previous protection 
from divine predictions and promises, presented each family 
for itself; it is obvious, that his sacrifices respected God, not in 
his absolute character of governor of the universe, but of go- 
vernor of a peculiar people by positive institution : And hence 
his sacrifices, that were formally sin-offerings, could not, from 
the very nature of relations, be admitted to the eminent station 
of absolute and formal emblems of the great sacrifice for sin- 
ners of mankind. 

If these observations be well founded, then, it is obvious, 
that though, on the one hand, our apostle hath already shown 
the inefficacy of the blood of bulls and of goats, and the sprink- 
ling of the ashes of an heifer, to purge the conscience from 
dead works to serve the living God; and, on the other, the 
efficacy of the death of Christ to obtain eternal redemption for 
us; yet he hath not exhibited the true character of the type, 
SS contrasted with the antitype in the formal sin-offerings of the 
Jewish economy, whose blood on the great day of atonement was 
Carried into the holiest of all, and whose bodies were burnt 
without the camp. 

My brethren, an offering for sin that is in every respect per- 
fect and accepted of under a typical economy, must not only 
have its blood carried into the figure of heaven, or holy of ho? 



WITHOUT THE GATE. 



101 



lies; but the priest and people themselves must eat of it, and 
live upon the nourishment it is supposed to yield them. Of the 
peace-offerings and burnt-offerings of the Jews, so distinct 
throughout their divine ritual in character from the sin-offerings, 
the priesthood and people could eat; and their blood being 
sprinkled before the vail , they could thus behold in them an 
emblem of a perfect sacrifice, though not before the governor 
of the world, yet before that merciful God who had, in relation 
unto them, left, as it were, his seat in heaven where he views 
our world as such, and had entered with themselves within the 
circumscribed circle he had been pleased, by the blood of the 
paschal Lamb, to draw for them. The blood of these peace- 
offerings and burnt-offerings, however, never could venture in- 
to the holiest of all, because the first tabernacle being yet stand- 
ing, — the tabernacle of the priesthood and people of Israel,-— 
no sacrifice could be a feast even ceremonially whose blood 
should dare to meet the eye of the Eternal, beyond the contract- 
ed canopy under which he had condescended to reside 
with them. Hence, says the apostle, in the 9th chapter of this 
epistle, " Now when these things were thus ordained the 
priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the 
service of God ; but into the second went the high priest alone, 
once every year, not without blood, which he offered for him- 
self and for the errors of the people; the Holy Ghost this signi- 
fying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made 
manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." — The 
Jewish tabernacle in its two apartments of Holy and Most 
Holy, admitted of being interpreted three ways : As an emblem 
of heaven and earth; of the church militant and church trium- 
phant; and of the circumscribed and indefinite economies of 
the dispensation of God's grace. Considering themselves as 
sinners, and God absolutely holy, the first view, and that 
through which all the rest are happily perceived, that they can 
take of the tabernacle, is, that in which they see in the first ta- 
bernacle, the peculiarity of their own separated station ; and in 



102 



CHRIST^ SUFFERING 



the second, the J udge of the world yet hiding himself from 
them. Yes, at the era of the erection of the tabernacle God 
withdraws from the world at large, and dwells in the holy camp 
of Israel; at the termination of this dispensation he breaks 
down the wall of peculiar'separation which he had built, and 
on the theatre of the world calls, Ho! every one that thirsteth, 
come ye to the waters and drink; and when he shall have 
gathered the subjects of his kingdom from the four winds of 
heaven, and placed them on the thrones of glory to which he 
has destined them, then will he connect himself to these his 
creatures by an immediate dominion ; and the Jews, who as a 
people related to their tabernacle were only ceremonially 
Banctified, as they interpreted this tabernacle itself, could see im- 
mediately in it, nothing but the figure of their own happy privi- 
leges, and a representation of privileges upon earth that were 
yet beyond them ; and through these glasses they could con- 
template the real church militant and triumphant; and, imagin- 
ing the veil to be removed, even the absolute kingdom of the 
Mediator surrendered up to the Father. — But, is it said, that 
the high priest enteredinto the holy of holies? He did so once 
every year: But it was in the character of the representative of 
God's first born, who, in Egypt, in the night of their sanctifica- 
fion, had been ceremonially redeemed to be, till the wall of par- 
tition then erected were cast down, a peculiar people; it was 
with the memorial of the passover he entered ; and by his enter- 
ing in this manner, he was permitted, as his dispensation was of 
a restricted and temporary nature only, to view, once every year, 
the station from which God had condescended to choose the Is- 
raelites, and to which after he had served his purposes with them 
he would return ; the station from which he addresses mankind 
sinners in the privileges of the dispensation of mercy ; — that dis- 
pensation which applied to the sinner changes his character and 
nature, and clothes him with the garments of salvation ; — those 
garments which in the kingdom of heaven will be eternally the 
pure and white robes of the saints. 



WITHOUT THE GATE. 



103 



But if the blood of the sin-offering on the great day of atone- 
ment be only a renewal of the passover, and in this relative 
sense only, an atonement for the high priest himself, and for 
the errors of the people, what difference, we are led to ask, ia 
there between the original passover, and the sin offerings ob 
the great day of atonement in the Jewish constituted economy? 
The original passover was a formal sin-offering, its blood was 
sprinkled towards the naked eye of heaven, on the door posts 
and lintels of the door, and the people all eat of it. Out of the 
original paschal Lamb was begotten by a new birth the person 
of a people, that as a vine was to be planted in a fruitful land ; 
and which, though changing often individual leaves, and often 
torn and broken in its members, was yet to grow till the 
great husbandman should clear the ground for another more 
pure and promising stock. ' The Levitical sin-offering of the 
passover, on the other hand, never could beget a new people; 
it could only raise into immediate view the primary fountain 
from which their life sprung ; and calling their faith to this, year 
after year, it w r as a means, in its character of reminiscence, of 
washing from ceremonial defilement. Christians, every Israel- 
ite had as much a ceremonial, as every real christian, has a 
spiritual new birth; and his character of born of God all flow- 
ed from that blood of atonement that was the basis of the 
Jews' peculiar economy, as the christian's new birth all issues 
from the great passover at the fulness of time ; and in their con- 
stituted economy, the memorial of their passover was a means 
of daily washing them, as our remembrance of the death of 
Jesus in our New Testament supper, is a means of our puri- 
fication. 

But if the sin-offering on the great day of atonement must 
be viewed, not as a formal pattern, before the sight of heaven, 
like the original passover, of the great sacrifice for sin ; and if 
it is not to be viewed, like the burnt-offerings and peace-offer- 
ings, as real patterns shown for their instruction and comfort, 



104 



Christ's suffering 



to a peculiar but already reconciled people, how, let me in- 
quire, since its blood has entered into the holiest of all, does 
it discriminate itself from all other sacrifices ? 

Here, I beg your attention to the fact that the variety of sin- 
offerings which on the great day of atonement was first pre- 
sented, and being a memorial of the passover, took off, 
from the original deed, a copy of its privileges for that 
year, and so paved the way during that period of time, for their 
burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, and ordinary sin-offerings? 
though consisting of bullocks, rams, goats, and lambs, was in 
effect only one offering. Remembering this, we have only to 
add farther, that while all other sacrifices are emblems of a 
real purification from sin, either in the open world, or to a pe- 
culiar people within the circle of their separation; yet, the 
offering in question, will support neither of these characters. 
During the encampment of the children of Israel in the wil- 
derness their camp encircled their privileges, whilst all without 
it was unhallowed ground; in the desert, it represented Ca- 
naan, in the world ; and on the altar that was in the midst of 
their holiness they saw the fat of their sin-offerings laid by the 
consecrated sons of Aaron, but it is thoroughly consumed, 
while the fire is yet unsatisfied : for over the heads of the offerers, 
breaks a voice which pronounces them unclean, and drives 
them, with the remainder of the offering, from the holy ground 
on which they stand, into the profane world, and there the 
fire is rekindled and burns till all is destroyed. The bullock, 
the sin-offering, and the goat, the sin-offering, whose blood 
was brought in to make an atonement in the holy place, shall 
one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the 
fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung; and he that 
burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in wa- 
ter, and afterward he shall come into the camp. Lev. 16. 

But we will analyse another instance of the Levitical sin> 
offerings on the day of the commencement of the ecclesiastical 



WITHOUT THE GATE, 105 

year of Israel. The scape-goat makes an atonement for Israel 5 
but this is in the same lot with another which has been slain ; 
whose blood has been sprinkled towards and upon the mercy 
seat in the holy of holies ; and whose hide, flesh, and dung are 
burnt without the camp. What is the import of this wonder- 
ful manner of oblation on the great day of atonement? Does 
not this machinery of expiation show us, that, though the 
blood of the latter has been admitted to renew the memorial 
of the passover, and to afford for a moment protection to the 
representative of Israel, while under the darkening cloud of in- 
cense he views, on the day that recals the origin of their 
economy, the glorious character in which God originally chose 
them ; yet, the blood which he scatters around him in the em- 
blem of heaven, having served its present purpose, loses all 
efficacy; the guilt, which was supposed buried for a moment, 
rises from under it; this being all Israel's is thrown back upon 
them; and there is no way of their being freed from it, but by 
the happy institution of the other ceremonial sacrifice, that, 
without attempting to expiate it, carries it, on its living head, 
into the wilderness? The scape -goat is a type of the Messiah, 
as it is generally viewed, only, in as far as it is a ceremonial 
atonement for the sons of Jacob in the city of their refuge ; 
but, in as far as it is the winding up of that offering which, in 
its complicated process, has touched upon the eye of Deity as 
he sits upon the circle of the heavens, it proclaims to the Jews, 
That the offerings of the children of Israel are of no avail ; that 
the moral relations of the people, notwithstanding all thek of- 
ferings, are still the same : It says, ye peculiar people, ye race 
already sanctified, may be saved, to all the ends of your sancti- 
fication ; but the moral character of man — the world and all 
that dwell in it, are yet absolutely guilty. Yes, my hearers, 
the representative of the first born of God in Egypt, did slay 
his offering and was permitted to view the formal emblem of 
heaven annually ; and by this review of their original privi-. 
leges to refresh the spirit, renovate the vigor, and purify from 
10 



toe 



Christ's suffering 



filth, for the passing year, the whole ritual of the Jewish na- 
tion : he was permitted to reconcile the holy place, and the 
tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar: But yet every 
time he finished his service he might have cried out, " We need 
a greater and more perfect tabernacle, one not of this build- 
ing Looking around him, this high priest might have ex- 
claimed, oh! ye sons of the promise, we have not a perfect 
image even of a sin-offering. — I perceive that the blood of our 
sin-offering which is permitted to reach the mercy seat, and 
to remain there covering our guilt, while 1 stand for a short 
space on this day, as the representative of the sons of Jacob; 
yet, as soon as my presence withdraws, the guilt that seemed 
buried, rises from under the temporary shadow; and that we 
may find safety, it must again be transferred to another offering 
which bears it away into the wilderness, the located emblem 
to us of an accursed world — where it abides, never expiated by 
blood : And, moreover, the whole original sacrifices, instead of 
affording any communion with God and with one another, are 
consumed in the same world of our sinful nature. As the 
sons of a promising God, the seed of Abraham, the children of 
the birthright of Jacob, as a people redeemed by God at a 
marked period of time, I see, indeed, that God does admit our 
sacrifices for sin, to renew, for a few moments, the paschal sacri- 
fice, through which, from every one's own hand, God originally 
sanctified his people to himself; but while this is the case, the 
ceremony breaks away among my hands, and, just having 
announced our positive economy and the privileges which it free- 
ly contains; it escapes from our view, like an image in a dream 
fli?; < . ..ngcs and moulders away while we contemplate it. To 
behok 1 a perfect ceremonial sin-offering from the hand of a 
piie&l ;3parated from among the people, and sanctified to his 
ofr as I am, it is necessary to look without the orbit of our 
restricted economy, it is necessary to look into the wide thea- 
tre of the world itself, where guilt in its naked character ap» 
" pears ; and to see presented there a sin-offering whose blood 



"WITHOUT THE GATE. 



107 



lias been accepted of by God, and whose flesh feeds the people 
that offer it Yes, children of Abraham, to explain our sa- 
crifices which have not merely a typical character, but as con- 
trasted with sacrifices previous to our economy, have this char- 
acter particularly modified according to our subservient dis- 
pensation, I must tell you, that the lav/ of our sacrifices must be 
interpreted by a connexion with the history of our religion., 
When we sing the Lord hath sworn and will not repent, thou 
art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec — Mel- 
chisedec who blessed Abraham and all us in him, — then, and 
then only, do we see that great high priest, and his sacrifice 
that in the accursed world, is a perfect emblem of the great 
sacrifice for sin. 

Guiding our thoughts, my brethren, by the discriminating 
principles of this epistle — that every high priest must offer both 
gifts and sacrifices unto God, and that Aaron's priesthood was 
ceremonially inferior, and included under that of Melchisedec, 
we have, in some measure, illustrated our prospects, and are 
now ready to tell you, that this doetrine is the subject warmly 
presented in our text and context When it is said in the 9th 
verse, that it is a good thing to have the heart established by 
grace, not with meats, which have not profited them that have 
been occupied therein, it is obvious, that by meats the apostle 
intends sacrificial meats, and that his aim is to convince us, 
that ail the sacrifices of which the Jews could eat were such as 
presupposed their God already reconciled to them and were 
not strictly sacrifices of expiation or sin-offerings. For it is im- 
mediately subjoined, verse 10th, We have an altar whereof they 
have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. This was the 
altar of sin-offering ; an altar which though materially the same 
with the altar of burnt-offerings and peacevofferings, had yet a 
peculiar character as related to the sin-offering, and consumed 
all the marrow and fat that was imposed upon it, without pro- 
ducing, on the great day of atonement, a sweet smelling savor 
unto God ; as, in the common sin-offerings ? and the offerings of 



108 



Christ's suffering 



ignorance, as well as the burnt-offerings, the peace-offerings, 
and the drink-offerings, on the same day, and all the other festi- 
vals and dedications, and in the daily sacrifice was produced. 
Tiiis altar, the 11th verse shows us, yielded the honor of per- 
fecting an emblem of expiation, and leaving priest and people 
under ceremonial defilement, saw them carry off to a clean 
place without the camp of Israel, the remainder of that sacri- 
fice, its virtues could not sanctify. " For the bodies of those 
beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high 
priest for sin every year, is burnt without the camp." Failing 
within the circle of their sanctification to produce a savor of a 
sweet smell, the sacrifices of the sons of Jacob are tried on the 
open theatre of our world, and all that we can learn from these 
sin-offerings is, that though the God of Jacob be pacified, the 
ruler of the universe is yet offended, — absolutely offended — that 
his wisdom and jealousy demolish the very shadows of a sin- 
offering. 

But although the Israelites durst not eat of their sin-offer- 
ings, and although in the open world they were entirely con- 
sumed, and both in relation to them, and to the condition of 
the scape-goat, their sin is yet crying for vengeance,- yet, our 
apostle informs us, that we have a right to eat of this altar of sin- 
jffering. Melchisedec, who blessed Abraham in the character 
of priest of the most high God, has offered his emblems of ex- 
piation, and in the world of mankind he maintains the charac- 
ter of king of righteousness, by the perfect acceptance, as it is 
supposed, of his sacrifice, and as the relations of his priesthood, 
a perfect image of the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ, de- 
monstrate; and the apostle now exhibits to our view the great 
antitype of this priest, that was made like unto the Son of God. 
In our text we are called to behold Jesus, the substance of all 
predictive forms ; Jesus who has taken from the head of the 
scape-goat all the sin of the true Israel it ever bore into the wil- 
derness- who has carried it back to the seat of the ineffectual 
sacrifices of the sons of Jacob; and who, demolishing entirely 



WlTHOtJT fflE feATfii. 



109 



their whole restricted and emblematical ritual, hy a legislative 
anathema of your house is left unto you desolate; then stands 
on the bare bosom of our accursed earth, on that station that 
had been so long awaiting him j and on this station of our open 
world he purines the things of heaven itself by his blood, and 
he gives us his flesh to eat. " Wherefore Jesus also, that he 
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without 
the gate." Yes, thou, oh ! Jesus, a priest, not after the order of 
Aaron, but after that of Melchisedec, wast, on the scene of the 
death of persons excommunicated and anathematized from the 
peculiar people that God had chosen, subjected to the fire of 
the wrath of the Judge of the spirits of all men, which no sa- 
crifice could ever endure; and on this accursed scene, thou didst 
endure, sustain, and exhaust it: like the bush, which was a 
figure of thee, and which grew in an unhallowed region, except 
what its own light and heat consecrated, burning and not con- 
sumed. 

Having authoritatively revoked their subservient economy, 
and thus having also by his death redeemed the faithfulness of 
God that had been pledged under the emblems that had been 
shown to the Jews of a real sacrifice, as well as having fulfilled 
all shadows that ever prefigured him,— is it not with propriety, 
my brethren, that the apostle continues the subject, and urges 
the improvement of this great prospect that he has opened in the 
world at large on them, who by a wall of separation, had been 
so long preserved a peculiar people? He has just been telling 
the Jews, that in the dispensations of God, their emblems have 
passed away, and that now they are come to Mount Zion, the 
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the church of 
the first born, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men 
made perfect, to the mediator of the new covenant, and to the 
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of 
Abel: to beseech them, therefore, to leave their camp, the image 
of it, and to enter into the city itself, is what is to be expected. 
Hence these subsequent verses — Let us therefore go forth 

10* 



no 



Christ's suffering 



unto him without the camp bearing his reproach, for here we 
have no continuing city of abode, but we seek one to come. — 
The blood of Abel, my brethren, being the first that was shed 
in our world, stands, in our apostle's reasoning, opposed abso- 
. lutely to the blood of Christ; it opens a mouth of vindictive 
justice, which has blown from the field of truth the sacrifice of 
Melchisedec and left only the mystery of his names, from which 
to learn the extent and formalities of his office, which has held 
the first born of Israel for ever forfeited unto God, and which 
has consumed the sin-offerings of Israel's peculiar economy as 
a standing testimony that God is a consuming fire: But while 
Christ vindicates the propriety of instructing the world by those 
mere images that divine justice tears asunder in the history of 
its procedure, he does yet take upon himself the whole task of 
opposing the fury of divine vengeance, and his blood speaks 
better things than the blood of Abel. Hence follows this ex- 
clamation of the apostle: By him, therefore, let us offer the 
sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our 
lip, giving thanks to his name. 

But against the general view of the subject which we have 
exhibited, it may perhaps be objected, that we place the Jewish 
types in such an inferior station among the emblems that God 
had appointed to prefigure Christ, that we invert the order of a 
gradual increase of light and privilege till the fulness of time. 
But, it is obvious, our view militates against this idea in the 
clearest and most forcible manner. The introductory econo- 
mies that God had established in our world, as already hint- 
ed, were pure expressions of his free and sovereign grace; the 
limited or unlimited nature of them, might have been changed 
or continued according to the divine pleasure. Nothing can 
be more erroneous than to suppose that the Jewish economy 
was capable of being formally repealed only in the death of the 
Saviour of the world. Had it not been for the prophecies that 
carried down its existence till the fulness of time, this restricted 
and positive econemy, might, at any time, have been as sover- 



WITHOUT THE GATE. Ill 

eignly revoked as it had been freely instituted. Being indeed, 
established upon divine promises and predictions as the last 
typical dispensation, it was indispensable that it should con- 
tinue till the Messiah arrived; and containing real types and 
shadows which he alone could fulfil, this Messiah must be 
said to have nailed it to his cross, since in this way only could 
forms be displaced by their substance; but considering the 
economy by itself, it was, the subject of authoritative establish- 
ment or revocation only. Jesus nailed to his cross all pre-ex- 
isting shadows, as well as those in the Jewish economy ; al- 
though, this being the last typical dispensation, and containing 
the privileges of all previous times, and many pre-eminent excel- 
lencies of its own; — privileges and excellencies, however, that 
the world at large might have forever enjoyed, but which were 
sovereignly bestowed, for the wisest purposes, upon a peculiar 
people, — it is said, in relation to this people, that as the Sun 
himself arose and dispelled all shadows, the wall of their separa- 
tion disappeared. The Jews from the epoch of their deliver- 
ance from Egypt, represented, by the peculiarity of their privi- 
leges, the world, as it had once been placed under a dispensation 
of mercy; and all the rest of the nations are viewed, during this 
period of time, as under the region and shadow of death ; and 
when the light that is the fulfilment of prophecy and prediction 
is now about to visit the long abandoned nations, Jesus dis- 
pels the shadows of the world, dispels them from under the re- 
stricted and particular pavilion under which they had been all 
grouped together; and breaking down thus a partition wall that 
a particular dispensation had erected, he gives to the world the 
realization of all types, and those privileges they once enjoyed, 
but which had been long withdrawn from them. 

Remembering, then, that the world in every age had had 
figures of Christ, we see clearly, how the Jewish economy was 
inferior among the types, and yet its privileges must be con- 
sidered an advancement on the scale of light and privilege in 
the dispensations of God. A perfect figure might easily have 



112 



Christ's suffering 



been mistaken for the reality. But while the Jewish burnt-offer- 
ings and peace-offerings were shadows that, under their restrict- 
ed economy, taught them the true relations of a formal sacrifice 
for sin ; while the blood of these was sprinkled before the vail, 
and they themselves eat of the sacrifice j their sin-offerings that 
ventured to purify the representation of heaven itself, the abode 
of Deity by his presence, his law, and his yet covered mercy, 
taught them, in the most practical and convincing manner, that 
the blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin. 
The ordinances of all previous types were merely sovereign 
and admirably adapted methods of teaching mankind, in the 
first and rude ages of the world, the fact of a real atonement; 
and the machinery of the Jewish economy in its ordinances of 
expiation merely, was prominently superior to all previous in- 
stitutions, reflecting the shadow, though not the formal image, 
of a sin-offering, and also proclaiming in the most pointed man- 
ner the w T orthlessness and insufficiency of them all. "For the 
law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very 
image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which are 
offered year by year, make the comers thereunto perfect." A 
perfect image of a sin-offering once presented and formally ac- 
cepted by God, would ceremonially have forever taken away all 
conscience of sin ; and as there could be only one offering by 
Christ in making a real atonement, so, had the sin-offerings of 
the Jews displayed a perfect image, they could have been only 
once presented ; the majesty of equity would have forbidden 
the presumptuous ceremony, that attempted to appease, what 
was already pacified. The Jews' sin-offerings were only the 
shadow of an image, they were only the remembrance of sin 
once every year ; of sin, which though expiated ceremonially in 
the original passover, was yet morally unbroken and untouched, 
and which cried annually before them for that vengeance which 
it merits. The law, as well as reason, or the inspirations of 
the New-Testament, enstamped its seal of imperfection upon 
its own methods of expiation: Its usages suggested to our 



WITHOUT THE GATE. 113 

apostle, what his reason, and the spirit of inspiration, so power- 
fully urge in these subsequent words, " For then would they not 
have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once 
purged should have had no more conscience of sins : But in those 
sacrifices there is a'remembrance again made of sins every year : 
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls, and of goats 
should take away sins." 

Thus we have illustrated our first object, — we have shown 
what is meant by Jesus suffering without the gate. And the 
sum of our remarks is, That a leading object of this epistle is 
to convince us that the Jewish dispensation was confessedly a 
restricted and subservient economy ; that it never in its priest- 
hood and sacrifices formally typified Christ; and that when 
Christ offered his great sacrifice it was as the antitype of Mel- 
chisedec; Melchisedec who was priest of the most high God, 
and who blessed Abraham and filiated to his sons their right of 
priesthood ; Melchisedec who officiated without a respect to any 
people, and adumbrated Christ as the Saviour of sinners of 
mankind ; Melchisedec who directs the eye to our Saviour in the 
open and accimsed world — without the purlieus of the Jewish 
sanctified economy — without the camp of Israel — without the 
city of Jerusalem — on Golgotha the scene of the death of the 
excommunicated and cut off from ancient Israel. — Here Paul 
has shown us that Christ trode the winepress alone, and that of 
the people there was none with him. 

Neither is our view of the subject idle speculation. It il- 
lustrates in a wonderful manner the absolute purity of God, 
and his perpetual jealousy of his honor; it shows us that the 
practical ceremonies of the Jews, as well as the prophecies, 
proclaimed, that the Messiah respected in his office, not any 
particular nation, but the world at large; and it leads us to 
trace the free dispensation of mercy, its offices, and its bless- 
ings, to the point in history, where we see Abraham, the father 
of the Jewish nation, elevated above the temporal, and shining 
by Ike spiritual promises that God made to him; promises that of 



114 



Christ's suFFEEDfG, &c. 



themselves were worthy of God, and justified the propriety of 
enacting and establishing those that were temporal emblems, 
and subservient to their manifestation. In a word, it frees the 
New Testament dispensation from that influence which the 
economy of circumcision is so apt to exert over the spiritual 
body of the redeemed. In respect to the external character of 
the New Testament church, we are taught that we are to re- 
gulate it, rather by what prevailed previous to the Mosaic 
economy, than by the usages and practices of that subservient 
and evanescent dispensation; that as Melchisedec blessed 
Abraham as the temporal ally of Sodom and in the open air, so 
our New Testament churches need no consecration like posi- 
tively separated materials of ceremonial worship; nor is the 
kingdom of Christ to be viewed as necessarily connected with 
those temporal supports that upheld, on a particular spot of our 
earth, for a limited period, and for a subservient purpose, the 
material fabric of ceremonies that adumbrated it. 



■m 



DISCOURSE V. 

THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED BY CHRIST'S. BLOOD. 



Heb. 13: 12. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify 
the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate,. 

The second thing, my brethren, that in the explication of 
our text demands our attention, is « the people" to sanctify 
whom Jesus suffered without the gate. Who are those that 
are here called " the people V We are still presented with 
typical language, and language that is immediately drawn from 
the Jewish economy. Because of their separation to God and 
of their enjoyment of his institutions, the children of Israel 
were called, in contradistinction to all other nations, the Lord's 
people. 

When Abraham was called to sojourn in a strange land, and 
when this land became his own by the charter of a divine 
promise, a seed, to spring from his loins like the stars in hea- 
ven for multitude, was planted upon it ; this seed was guarded 
through the generations of Isaac and Jacob; and both from 
their original separation, and this guardianship to preserve 
them from intermixture with others, did the Israelites enjoy 
the appellation in our text. Afterwards by God there was given 
unto them a law which still more particularly distinguished 
them, and separated them from all other nations. Not only 
did the rainbow of a faithful promise silently surround and en- 
close them, and a law incorporate the variety and singularity 
of their privileges; but miraculous providences further pro- 



116 THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 

claimed their character; while living prophets. correcting their 
tendencies to deviation, and stimulating their endeavors to 
maintain that eminent and happy station above all people to 
which God had been pleased to exalt them, uttered, from 
generation to generation, the most unequivocal voice. Hence, 
on the records of the Jewish nation we have evidences that 
while all other nations are considered, not as the Greeks and 
Romans viewed people of other regions under civil barbarism, 
but under a religious degradation; they themselves are the 
chosen and sanctified people of God. Thus Isaiah, when 
prophesying of the Messiah, says, I will give him for a cove- 
nant of the people, and a light of the Gentiles. 

The name, Sons of God, however, was known in our world 
long before the promise of a holy seed was made to Abraham 
as the father of the Jewish nation. The worshippers of the 
true God obtained this appellation even in the antediluvian 
world. Hence, when the promise of a seed was made to 
Abraham, it was that he should be the father of many na- 
tions, — intimating, that as he alone was particularly chosen as 
the person in whose family the worship of God should be 
preserved, and from whose privileges the visible church should 
derive her character and deduce her history ; so this character 
and history, although eminently characteristic of his own liter- 
al offspring for a time, yet would at length diffuse themselves 
over a wider field, and show that the God who had chosen 
Abraham, was the same God, w T ho had spread the rainbow of 
his promise over the sons of Noah. Yes, Abraham , as has 
been demonstrated, is blessed, not by a messenger who re- 
sides within the circle of his own family, but by the priest of 
the most high God as he dwells in the world at large. Hence, 
all the prophecies and predictions that are made to the chil- 
dren of Abraham according to the flesh, lead them to remem- 
ber, that, in the great plan of God's mercy, of which atjpresent 
they display the only visible part, they are only a very subor- 



by Christ's blood. 



117 



dictate wheel, which, in performing its revolutions, will neces- 
sarily bring into view the rest of the machinery that is all 
compacted and jointed together with it. Consequently Ra- 
hab and Babylon, Tyre and Egypt, Philistia and Ethiopia, are, 
though present enemies, yet received in the mouth of prophecy, 
and hailed with the lips of praise, as people of the future joy- 
ful privileges of Zion. The wilderness and solitary place 
change their appearance before the Jews and grow into 1 the 
richest verdure. As the sun of righteousness arises, they in- 
vite the kings of the earth to advance, and behold his glory. 

On this principle Jeremiah, a prophet of the Jews, declared, 
After those days I will make a new covenant with the house 
of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the 
covenant which I made with your fathers, when I took them 
by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; but this is 
the covenant that 1 will make with the house of Israel, after 
those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my law in their inward 
parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and 
they shall be my people. True Israelites were under the Jew- 
ish economy purified and sanctified by the spirit of God, as 
well fas saints are under the New Testament dispensation. 
Hence this prediction, which our apostle quotes three times in 
this epistle, was not intended, in its primary and literal ac- 
ceptation, to teach, that in New Testament times, God would 
sanctify men internally, nor is it applied for this object in a sin- 
gle instance in this epistle. The object of it, defined and in- 
terpreted by our apostle, is, to convince the Jews of an ulterior 
and spiritual dispensation to which theirs was introductory, 
and in comparison with which it was material : a dispensation 
before which theirs would vanish away, and which in its own 
attributes would ultimately and permanently sitrlown the gen- 
uine form of the worship of a spiritual society. After the 
apostle, in the preceding chapter, has illustrated the priesthood 
after whose order Christ is constituted to his sacerdotal office, 
he, in the eighth chapter, produces this prophecy, to teach the 
11 



118 



THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 



Jews, from their own scriptures, the designed abrogation of 
their former dispensation, and the inspired fact of a new cov- 
enant: and while the names of Jndah and Israel are still used 
in speaking of this new dispensation ; yet, these titles, so en- 
dearing to the ears of Israelites, obviously widen their em- 
brace and exalt their dignity, by designating the spiritual in- 
stead of the literal seed of Abraham. 

Thus the people for whom Jesus suffered without the gate 
are they who enjoy the privileges of the dispensation of mercy. 
Their character is relative to the priesthood of Christ, who was 
formally typified by Melchisedec, that priest of the most high 
God who blessed Abraham, and through him the Jewish 
priesthood and people and after their subservient economy, 
the people of every kindred, tongue, and nation, that are called 
to be the spiritual seed of this great progenitor of the faithful. 
It would be the common, but a lame view of the subject, to 
suppose the objects of mercy under the New Testament dis- 
pensation interested exclusively in the happy character of 
those people for whom Christ sunered without the gate of 
Jerusalem. The Jews, while ceremonially distinguished from 
the people who enjoy the happy privileges of the new covenant, 
or dispensation of the gospel, yet, had under the cover of their 
ceremonies, spiritually and morally the very same offers and 
calls of mercy that we enjoy. Their ceremonies, we have al- 
ready remarked, were merely methods of instruction,- and im- 
plied, as obtaining at that time, a spiritual and moral dispen- 
sation, of which they were the material external expressions. 
When we answer the question then, who are the people for 
whom Jesus sunered without the gate? we must reply, all that 
have enjoyed the dispensation of his grace since the first prom- 
ise on which it was founded, and all that ever will enjoy it till 
the end of time. 

But here we must ask, did Christ suffer promiscuously for 
all to whom an offer of his gospel is made? And let me ob» 
serve, that we are expressly informed that there is one God and 



by chjust's blood. 119 

one mediator between God and men, the man. Christ Jesus. 
This decision of holy writ shows us that the character of me- 
diator is relative to mankind sinners, and not to the sovereign 
and immanent acts of Deity. Many divines in order to estab- 
lish the definite satisfaction of Christ for those only who ulti- 
mately obtain salvation by him, have appeared, either to shun, 
or very slightly to pass over, all that the scripture declares re- 
specting the formal relations of our Mediator's character, in- 
stead of considering it as correlative to sinners of mankind, 
they have put out of sight the law to which he was made sub- 
ject, and have expressed themselves as if the decree of election 
were the rule formally of our Saviour's obedience. 

But many passages of scripture make it obvious that it was 
human nature that Christ took upon him, and that it was to the 
law of this nature he yielded his obedience. " Verily he took 
not upon him the nature of angels, but he took upon him the 
seed of Abraham. 1 ' Every gradation of intelligent being has a 
law founded in the comparative principles of its own nature in 
the great scale of existence; and this text of scripture demon- 
strates that while it was the law of God that Jesus obeyed; 
yet, it was not the majesty of Deity, as it appears in a law ne- 
cessarily concreated with the angels and suited to their grada- 
tion of being, but this majesty, as it appears in that law which 
was concreated with man, and founded in the peculiar princi- 
ples of his nature. Hence says another passage enstamped 
with the same authority, He was made of a woman, made under 
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might 
receive the adoption of sons. 

If I understand many divines, they consider Jesus as acting 
tinder a law peculiar to himself as Mediator; correlative to the 
supposed dignity of his person as God-man. They reduce the 
form of his character from the dignity of Deity, and elevate it 
far above humanity; whereas, if I understand the scriptures, 
the Mediator supports two forms of character, — the representa- 
tive of God towards uSj and the representative of man towards 



120 



THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 



God ; but, in no instance, are these distinctive features of his 
character confounded in the discharge of his office, any more 
than are his natures in the constitution of his person. No, the 
person of Christ is one, and can in relation to its actions be 
viewed two ways only — as God, or as man. As God, how- 
ever, it is obvious, he can be the formal subject of no law. 
Hence it must be as man, that he is Considered as our acting 
Mediator, in the achievement of the work of our redemption. 
The form of his character is that of man ; that he may repre- 
sent man, and that he may reindemnify the rule of justice that 
man had broken. It is, indeed, a truth that the Mediator is 
God as well as man, and that both the nature of God and the 
nature of man, meet essentially in the constitution of his me- 
diatorial person; but the light in which the Son of God the 
Father's servant, not by a delegated authority of headship over 
all things, in which sense he is the Father's representative 
majesty and glory to us, but as he is viewed a subject of law, 
of the law founded essentially and immutably in the principles 
of our nature, and as he is viewed under the authority of this 
law accomplishing our salvation, he is the man Christ Jesus. 

Now relative to this view of the Mediator's character, it is 
obvious, that the satisfaction of Christ must be viewed as in- 
definite. Omniscience is not the prerogative of man, nor a 
perfect knowledge of the secret purposes of God. Accident- 
ally to the character he is now actuating, the Mediator may in- 
deed have a restricted and definite intention in his death ; but 
to make the formal object of man's Mediator, as he sustains 
the character of a creature composed of flesh and blood and 
limited intellectual powers, to be the stamp of an immanent 
eternal purpose of God, and not the penalty and precept of the 
immutable law of man's nature, is to invert the unequivocal 
language of the Spirit, " Secret things belong to God, but those 
that are revealed to us and to our children." Neither does it 
alter the matter to say his divinity might have made revela- 
tions of the particular persons that were to be saved to his 



m CHBIsfs BLOOU. "121 

humanity ; for we are not now speaking of the natures of 
Christ, and what his human nature might have been accident- 
ally endowed with, but we are speaking of the character which 
in law the Mediator sustained, as by suffering and obedience he 
achieved our salvation. 

From what I have said it would be inconclusive to infer that 
the satisfaction of Christ was absolutely indefinite. It was in- 
definite in reference to the voice of the law that called for it, 
and in reference unto the aspect of the character which the Me- 
diator, as man's representative, turned to this law : but he who 
planned the universe, and knows the end from the beginning, 
is concerned about the business of our salvation, and we must 
not only consider it as correlative to the character of the Medi- 
ator, but as related to the omniscient and all-perfect Creator. 
Now here, it is undoubted, that both in the mind of God the 
Father, and of God the Son, who is the first-born of every 
creature, by whom are all things, and for whom are all things , 
as well as he is our Saviour, there are and must be, among 
those under the dispensation of grace, a definite number in 
whose stead Jesus stands. God sees the end from the begin- 
ning; and as in revelation we are expressly informed, that 
there were a certain definite seed, whom God the Father gave 
to his Son in the covenant of peace between them both, to be 
redeemed by him; so for this seed and this only, did Christ, as 
before the eye of his Father, suffer. That God thus knew the 
end from the beginning, and that he left many to perish from 
an act of his sovereignty, were, we further remark, subjects of 
revelation, and objects of man's knowledge: hence Christ as 
Mediator knew that there was an election that was to be saved, 
and that he as their Mediator represented this election — that it 
was their curse that he endured and for them alone that he 
obeyed. These are things we know; but We do not know the 
particular persons whom God placed in the election ; neither is 
this the prerogative of the Mediator — in any view of his char- 

11* 



122 



THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 



acter as Mediator, far less as man's representative; — but his 
prerogative as he is the great and omniscient God. Pre- 
science and omniscience are not predicates of man or of man's 
representative, but of the eternal and omniscient first cause 
of all things, — as H is viewed, too, as this first cause. 

Nor does this view of the subject militate against the death 
of Christ being considered as a procuring cause of particular 
redemption. Christ's death is definite — first, in relation to 
the divine purpose — secondly, as it is an estimated price by 
suffering, for them whom God hath chosen, and who are known 
to himself; — himself who cannot subject to a greater or less 
degree of ignominy and affliction, than his sense of justice and 
knowledge of all things and their qualities, will lead him, in 
the station of righteous judge, to express: and being definite 
in these senses ; it is so, both as related to God as his mind 
views the subject in his purpose or intention ; and as it is a price 
of redemption given to him — given as he himself a righteous 
judge exacts and gathers it till justice is satisfied : but it is 
not definite as related to the preceptive will of God, and as 
the divine intention runs along the line of the law which pre- 
scribes to him his duty, and guides God's Son, in the charac- 
ter of his Father's servant, and as our obedient and suffering 
surety. 

I An attention to the simple distinction now made, we think, 
would necessarily, among all who allow of the absolutely per- 
fect character of God, and his absolute knowledge of all things, 
put a stop unto disputes about the definite or indefinite na- 
ture of Christ's satisfaction. Vie wed simply in relation to the 
character of man's representative and Mediator, it can be no 
more definite, in the nature of moral relations, than man can 
be supposed possessed of them, and suited to exercise the pre- 
rogatives of prescience and omniscience; but viewed in rela- 
tion to that mind which from eternity has had an absolutely 
perfect view of its works, their properties and relations ; and 



BY CHRIBT'9 BLOOD. 



123 



viewed as a price estimated by God, and taken by his own 
hand that must do right, it is as absolutely definite, as God's 
character is perfect, both in knowledge and holiness. 

We are aware that the view which we have just taken of the 
people sanctified by the blood of Christ, has been considered 
as destroying that freedom of will which, it is supposed, all the 
commands, promises, and threatenings, of revelation necessa- 
rily presuppose. But it ought not to be forgotten that the 
character of God is of that perfect kind, which, while it neces- 
sarily involves a mystery in its connexion with all its works, 
yet is never to be robbed of its essential and unalienable pre- 
rogatives because of such an inscrutable mystery. Matter is 
extended, and its different globes roll at immense distances 
from one another, and God is coexistent with all of them — he 
is present every where; and yet, he who is a pure spirit, in this 
omnipresence, certainly has no relation to our ideas of ex- 
tension. No, here is a mystery, respecting the divine na- 
ture, equally impenetrable with the mystery of self-existence 
itself. 

The connexion, however, between God and his rational 
creatures no less overwhelms our capacities of comprehension. 
We cannot know how the absolutely perfect God sustains our 
minds every moment, and comprehends all their motions and 
actions in his infinitely wise plan from which all things have 
originally sprung, and of which the least atom or its move- 
ments form a definite part; but we must acknowledge that it is 
equally possible for God, mysteriously indeed to us, to connect 
himself so, according to his character of absolute perfection, 
with immaterial and rational agents, and yet to leave unim- 
paired the distinctive properties of their moral nature, as it is 
possible for him to be every where present with material crea- 
tion, and yet to leave to it the properties of extension and 
figure. That we act freely is a dictate of consciousness, and 
that we are accountable for these free actions, is a dictate of 
conscience — the highest authorities from which our reason can 



124 



THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 



receive testimony; but how we are as necessarily dependent 
creatures, to reconcile this freedom of action and this account- 
ableness, with the relation in which the all-perfect, intelligent 
first cause, stands to us, is a matter that we can no more ac- 
count for, than we can account for God's ubiquity, and coex- 
istence with figured and extended matter : and it is equally 
unphilosophical and unreasonable to dispute the former as to 
deny the latter. From everlasting God in absolute perfection 
looked through the whole system of his creation, and saw 
all things in themselves and their relations; beheld every 
wheel turn, and the influence it produced on every other; 
saw all acting, and each in its own sphere and on its own 
points of contact ; — till both in material and immaterial things, 
the great drama of nature, which God had planned, even to the 
least particle that enters into its composition, or ray of intelli- 
gence that illumes the dark material pillars of the great fabric, 
closed its acting. 

From wha' we have said, it is obvious, that under the ex- 
pression, " the people," in relation to the external covenant 
which subsists between God and man by the great high 
priest of our profession, sfee^as sprinkled with his blood in the 



whom the call of the gospel has come, must be supposed inclu- 
ded. The blood is the blood of Jesus an high priest, not after 
the order of Aaron, but after that of Melchisedec; this high 
priest of Jews and Gentiles is the Mediator between God and 
sinners of mankind ; and the offer of the peace that is by his 
blood, must comport with the nature and relation in which we 
are led thus to contemplate his character. The proffer of the 
waters of life must be, Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye 
to the waters and drink. 

But this general dispensation of his grace must, like all the 
other works of God, be traced to God himself, and tried by his 
perfect knowledge of the end from the beginning; and as we 
undoubtedly know that under the general cover of offered mer- 



privileges that invest 




remarked, to 



by Christ's blood. 



125 



cy many are left utterly to perish; so God the judge of all 
the earth that will do right, must, in the character of the author 
of his secret purposes, and of righteous actings, be viewed as 
definitely ordaining what takes place within the happy circle 
of salvation ; and this as justly connected with that person to 
whom he hath sworn, and who by sufferings and punishment 
hath achieved our redemption. In the spirit of true philoso- 
phy and sound reason, we must view an expression of the 
sovereign will of God, that teaches the properties of the crea- 
ture, recognizes their nature, and does justice to their capaci- 
ties of acting, called by divines his preceptive will ; and we 
must also acknowledge an intelligent, energetic will, that looks 
through all parts of his vast works, and as the first cause di- 
rects and moves them; and though, in relation to the former of 
these, the proffer of the gospel is to all indefinitely as people 
separated by the appointment of God to have the blood of the 
great sin-offering of Christ sprinkled towards them ; yet, in re- 
lation to the latter, the people must mean, those that Christ 
was appointed in the decree of the covenant of redemption to 
represent; whose debt he actually paid to justice; and who, in 
a subordination to this decree, and as the fruit of this pur- 
chase, believe in him. The righteousness of the antitypical 
and real passover is to all Jews and gentiles that hear of 
Christ's name; but it is upon all them only who believe. — Yes, 
my brethren, we may be called saints because of our privileges 
issuing from the sufferings of Christ; but unless we be united 
to him by faith, unless we believe the testimony of God re- 
specting his Son, and from the matter of this testimony, which 
sets his obedience unto the death before us as the foundation 
on which our hopes of eternal life are to rest, we receive him, 
never can we be entitled unto the high and interesting charac- 
ter, which the spirit of inspiration sets up, purified and washed, 
in our text, and, as the antitype of the holy people of God of 
old, calls them, " the people." 

From the view taken, it is evident, that the first promise to 
Adam and to his immediate descendants, comprised the matter 



126 



THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 



of a covenant respecting salvation by the Messiah: that the 
covenant made with Noah, a preacher of righteousness, exhib- 
ited the faithfulness of God under the same solemn aspect: 
that Abraham's covenant began to withdraw from them the 
light that in faint rays had previously wandered through the 
world at large, and to direct them into a more bright but con- 
tracted incidence on his own posterity : that the covenant with 
the nation of Israel actually enclosed them upon the people 
and spot of the earth, which, during the Mosaic dispensation, 
were peculiarly separated and sanctified by them: and that at 
the end of this dispensation, when the sun himself arose, the 
same hath taken place with respect to all that he hath yet visit- 
ed in his progress over our world. The almighty God con- 
siders himself bound b\ his promise and oath, to give eternal 
life to as many as believe in his Son; and he condescends to 
present himself in this character to all to whom he proclaims 
his gospel. His voice announces, " he that believeth shall 
he saved." 

I would remark further here, that it appears that Christ, in 
suffering for those whom according to the purpose of God be 
represents, did not suffer to an abstract relation of the law. 
While we cannot enumerate the variety of their trans- 
gressions, nor estimate the different shades of their guilt; yet 
God must perceive the sins of all men, and decide at once on 
the amount of their desert; and as he must calculate the just 
and immutable demands of his law, so, when he imposes upon 
man's surety, what, in moral reckoning, his absolute know- 
ledge perceives, and his holiness detests, it must be the exact 
weight of punishment which the balances of his holy sanctuary 
have adjusted.* 

*The Hopkinsians assert that justice is satisfied so that, in moral reck- 
oning, were it not for the decrees of God, all men might be saved; there 
being put into the cup of the death of Christ all that justice for all men 
could prepare. But in opposition to this, the justice of God here is kept 
immaculate, by his omniscience presenting to it the amount of the desert 



by Christ's blood. 



127 



To speak of an intrinsic merit in the punishment of Christ, 
of itself sufficient for the salvation of all men, is both to mistake 
the attributes of punitive justice, and the nature of Christ's 
substitution ; as well as to involve the extent of Christ's satis- 
faction under the grasp of that decree of God which appoint- 
ed the Mediator to his office, and which connected him, as an 
effectual means, with the end of salvation to be obtained. If 
Christ was appointed by a decree of God to his office; if this 
decree, in laying out the extent and formalities of it, contem- 
plated, in its bosom, merit for the salvation of all men; and if 
this means is connected with its end, which, in the nature of 
things, can be only conditional or absolute, then it will foU 
low, either according to the view of Armenians, that Christ 
died conditionally for the whole world, or according to the 
view of some others, that he died absolutely for all man- 
kind. 

The intrinsic excellence which fills us with admiration as 
we contemplate Christ, was not in the cup of his death itself 
appointed by God as the specific indemnification of his law, 
but in the dignity of his person, which, had it been so appoint- 
ed by God, might have satisfied for a thousand worlds; and 
in that exuberance, which, from this essential dignity, made 
the death of Christ of immeasurable value. The mistake of 
many on this subject is, they forget that the death of Christ 
with respect to its merits, must always be estimated by the 
judge who inflicts it, and that whatever bis sense of justice 

of the iins of all men, and by this justice laying no more of it npon 
Christ, than the weight which belongs to the persons whom he repre- 
sents. The method of a settlement on general terms with justice origi- 
nates in the absolute weakness of men; and reminds us of the views of 
mankind formerly respecting the constitution of material things. It was 
supposed that in the bodies of matter the elements were huddled fortui- 
tously together; but modern science teaches us that through all nature 
the elements unite together on the principles of absolutely definite pro* 
portions. 



128 



THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED 



imposes as the punishment due from the penalty of the law, 
that, and that alone, whatever be the overflowing excellency of 
the person, can be (denominated the merit of his achievement 
by suffering. The surety of the elect could give no more 
than justice exacted. I came not, says he, to do mine own 
will, but the will of him that sent me. 

The decree respecting the appointment of the Mediator to 
his office, and which must decide the extent of object con- 
templated in his death, exhibits itself, in scripture, in two as- 
pects — the first respects his relation to mankind sinners, and 
the second respects the individuals whom, from amongst 
these, God had sovereignly chosen, and in this decree of the 
Mediator to his office, had united to him ; and whose punish- 
ment, as thus represented in him, he had adequately and just- 
ly to endure. " I lay down my life for the sheep." 

The offer of the gospel is not founded on a physical suffi- 
ciency in the death of Christ for the salvation of all men; but in 
the relation of the Mediator's office to sinners of mankind ; nor 
can it be objected to this view of the subject, that since men are 
called by the gospel promiscuously, it would be inviting those 
who are not interested in the death of Christ by the intention 
of God, to partake of a feast which had not been prepared for 
them. The call of the gospel simple and undefined, does in- 
deed address every ear, it sounds an alarm to every description 
of sinful character, and proffers the blessings of life to it : but it 
ought never to be forgot, that the present subject of our discus- 
sion always presupposes an inquiry on the part of the persons 
addressed ; an inquiry invited by the known prerogatives of 
God's sovereignty, and a knowledge of the distinction be- 
tween his secret and revealed will — whether all men are to be 
saved, or part only ; and here the minister of truth must re* 
peat what God himself hath said on this very subject, "I 
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." Hence Jesus, 
who is the great prophet of his church, stood himself and cried, 



by Christ's blood. 



129 



u If any man thirst let him come to me and drink he com- 
manded his prophets and his apostles to do the same; and yet 
Jesus said, in the ministry of the same office, " I know whom I 
have chosen." 

Again, we would still further remark on this clause, that 
our view exhibits the Mediator as officiating between two 
parties — representing God to us — and us to God. His two 
natures meeting in the constitution of his mediatorial person, 
occasion actions sometimes to be ascribed to the one nature 
which logically belong to the other. Feed the church of 
God which he hath purchased with his own blood ; — God can 
neither suffer nor die; — God hath appointed a day in the 
which he will judge the world by that man whom he hath 
ordained : It is not the prerogative of man to try the heart 
and reins, and decide eternally upon their qualities. Hence 
we must remark that Jesus as Mediator has a twofold head- 
ship in heaven; a headship as the representative and forerun- 
ner of his people, in which character our title to heaven is re- 
alized in his person ; and a headship over all things and re 
lations extrinsical to his church, and by the authority of which 
he makes all things work together for her present and eternal 
welfare. To the first of these stations he hath made his way 
through the perfect discharge of the duties of the law of man's 
nature. Qualifying himself for it by the assumption of hu- 
manity, he merited it by obedience and suffering, and now 
possesses it as the strict legal issue of the work which he per- 
formed. But to the second he hath been appointed, as a free 
and honorary reward sovereignly bestowed as he is the repre- 
sentative of his Father in the glorious dominion which has 
been disponed to him. Hence in this character he directs all 
things; will judge the world,* and, when the drama of the 
universe is wound up, he will retreat from the immediate sia. 
tion he now occupies — that, in this sense, the Son himself, who 
had in his humiliation to say, My Father is greater than I, 
may, in his exaltation, be subject to the Father. 
12 



ISO THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED, &C. 

We may just add one other remark, connecting the preced- 
ing, and the present discourse, and the members of the pres- 
ent among themselves, — that the first born of Israel were the 
life and lords of their brethren r and so when Christ is con- 
nected with every creature as its first born, he is viewed as the 
Creator and Lord of it,* when again he is connected with the 
redeemed as their first born, he appears before us as the origin 
of their life, and the sovereign of their conduct,- and when as 
Mediator he has a name given him which is above every name, 
it is the majesty of Deity that shines upon the robes of his 
character, and makes every knee in heaven, and in earth, and 
under the earth, bow to him. — As God then, my brethren, 
Christ is our Creator,* as God's vicegerent in the kingdom of 
the universe, he is our guardian, in life, in death, and in the 
state of the dead , and as he is our proper representative, he is 
our life itself, — having begotten it, and preserving it — distil- 
ling the dew of grace from his own fulness to increase and 
ripen the field of his saints, till, as a holy nation, a peculiar 
people, a royal priesthood, the image of himself, *hey sit down 
on his throne in the highest heavens. — Oh ! Jesus, we are thy 
people by profession; make us thy people, not by the will of 
the flesh, nor by the will of man, nor by the blood of our privi- 
leges, but by the water and spirit of life 



DISCOURSE VI* 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT- 

Bed. 13: 12. Wherefore Jesus also, that h£ might sanctify 
the people with his oxen blood, suffered witlmut the gate. 

Having explained, in the two former discourses, the two 
clauses which communicate separate and distinct ideas, 
we come now, my brethren, to show that) Jesus sanctifies 
"the people" with his own blood. This is the most interest- 
ing part of our undertaking, instructive of itself, reflecting light 
on what has preceded, and connecting the whole into a mag- 
nificent and solid structure. 

It must be remembered that the sanctification which is 
effected by Christ, according to the import of the word sane- 
tification in this espistle, comprises purification from guilt, a 
title to the possession of heaven, and internal purity conforma- 
ble to the high pretensions of this title. The Israelites were 
purified ceremonially by their passover, from that sin the wages 
of which is death; they passed through the wilderness living 
upon manna, heavenly food^ and thay never rested till they 
entered into their promised land. Hence, when the true Isra- 
elites are sanctified by their great high priest, there are three 
relations in their purification. Yes, as Christ is anointed with 
the spirit, justified in his resurrection from the dead, and as- 
cends into heaven ; so his people are anointed, justified and 
glorified. u For both he that sanctifieth ? and ihey who are 
sanctified, are all of one," 



132 



SA NOTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



In entering on the illustration of this momentous portion of 
our work, we premise, that Christ who sanctifies the people with 
his blood, and whom we have, in all our preceding reasonings, 
presumed to be peculiarly connected with them, is strictly and 
properly, by the appointment of God, the representative in 
law ofliis people. 

The principle of representation, though, in this case, oppo- 
sed by many, is yet recommended to our belief, by its practi- 
cal interpretation in all departments of natural and human op- 
eration. Every company transacts its business by agents, 
every nation has its ambassadors, every people organize and 
carry on their affairs by representatives; the planets, in their 
respective orbits, bear along, under their immediate attraction, 
their respective satellites; and philosophy says that the solar 
system itself describes a slow path, in the boundless regions of 
space, around an unknown and distant centre, felt by the sun, 
and tacitly submitted to by his attendents. The angels are 
ranked under orders of precedency; the messengers of dark- 
ness appear in legions, and their mighty captain to whom they 
look gives his commissions and receives congratulations; and 
the race of men make way for succeeding generations, through 
that dreary state which is abhorrent to their nature, and which 
scripture informs us is an entail from the unhappy purchase of 
our common father. — But this truth, thus formally stated, will 
interweave itself, and glean strength to its character, sometimes 
more and sometimes less perceptible, throughout all our sub- 
sequent reasonings. 

We are to prove, to-day, that, in sanctifying them, Christ 
purifies his people from guilt. 

This is evident, in the first place, because Christ suffered, 
and his sufferings must have obtained the forgiveness of the 
sins of his people. Jesus, that he might sanctify the people 
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Jesus, in his 
estate of humiliation, suffered hunger, cold, thirst, watching 
and care, slander and reproach, every kind of temptation, 



SA^CTIf ICATION FRO'H GVILT. 



fS3 



agony, and death. Standing the substitute of that man wbooc 
history informs us, that, as all objects attract or repel one an- 
other in nature, so, even malign intellectual beings are permit- 
ted to interfere actively with his concerns, Jesus fulfilled all 
righteousness by satisfying the law of man, in those trying cir- 
cumstances, where this his foe could make the most dismal 
attack. The legions of darkness carried the waters o£ bitter- 
ness into the soul that was holy, harmless, and undefiled, but 
which was pierced with the sharpest arrows that ever inflicted 
a wound. The sons of men, who look upon appearance only, 
dipped in malice their shafts, and reached the heart in the in- 
stance of the Son of man. They rejected his title, they con- 
demned him for blasphemy, they pierced his hands and his 
feet on the accursed tree. And God , in his character of holy 
judge, met with him In Getbsemene, and wrung his frame in 
agony, and his soul with exceeding sorrow even unto death; 
and at death, when all truly righteous martyrs, in the heroism 
of their minds, and from the ardor of their righteous cause ex- 
claim, that they would not exchange their situation for a thous*-" 
and worlds, Jesus, on the cross, in the mystery of his suffer 
ing, stood alone, and exclaimed, My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me! 

Now, did providence inflict these sufferings on one that was 
free from personal fault, and also imputed sin? Could God 
thus bring every kind of misery, cruelty, and death itself, — -an ac- 
cursed death, upon him that was personally sinless, and separ- 
ate from sin in every respect? — The realization of this supposi- 
tion would give us a strange and an unfavorable idea of that 
supreme and guardian intelligence, whom reason pronounces eve- 
ry way just and righteous. What injustice, in the view of reason, 
to inflict, in an unparalleled manner, those very sufferings which 
we suppose a consequence of sin, and which on all hands are 
allowed to be what are to punish it, on him that is absolutely in- 
nocent; or how does this agree with what God hath declared in 
his own word ? Is it ever there said that God may punish such 

JO* 



1X4 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GTJILT. 



innocence? Is it ever there said, that however inoffensive, how- 
ever holy and harmless one may be, yet, he will not spare this 
one, but will exceed his ordinary course to punish and afflict 
him — snatching off the martyr's joy when all leave him but 
his God? Against this scripture and reason remonstrate. 

But, my brethren, it is not more impossible to account for 
the singular sufferings and death of Christ, without supposing 
them all to take place in our guilty room, than it is possible to 
reflect upon them in his instance, and not perceive that they 
must be a real sacrifice for sin. If Christ voluntarily under- 
took to satisfy for iniquity ; if he had a right to do so, and did 
voluntarily subject himself to man's obnoxious relation to the 
law of God; then God the Father could subject him to all the 
sufferings he underwent. As the wages of sin is death, he 
could pour into his soul all the bitterness of it, and produce on 
his body all its immediate effects. This was what equity on 
the supposition of a substitution authorized and required, and 
could not but inflict. — Are Christ's sufferings, then, we ask, 
the real demolition of it, as well as the effect of guilt? 

Christ, my brethren, is God and man in one person. We 
would not at present prove but presume this; asking if any 
language could be supposed so unguarded as that of scripture 
respecting Jesus, if he is not to be viewed as a divine person? 
He is called God in climaxes of language where the mind is led 
to the belief of the most exalted acceptation of words ; the 
name Jehovah, peculiar to God in the vocabulary of Israel, is 
given to him, and affixed upon him by interpretations that at- 
tempt to show us the true mystery of this peculiar name; his 
agency in the creation of all things is exhibited as a subject 
never to be questioned ; providence is in his hand as in that of 
one who, not like a creature, but the omnipotent preserver, 
continually manages all its concerns; worship by angels and 
men, is, in its highest attributes of praise presented to him; 
he possesses, in the field of Tevelation, the natural and moral 
attributes of Godhead ; and, what no other is deemed able to 



SANCTIPICATION FROM GUILT* 



135 



perform, he saves the souls of men, and at judgment will judge 
their most secret thoughts. 

If Christ be the true God, for himself in this character he is 
under no law, and in the same act in which his Father sover- 
eignly appoints him to undertake it, he must be supposed equal- 
ly sovereignly to accept the work of our redemption ; hence 
his human nature, which is personally united to the divine, is 
justified, in its moral acquiescence to suffer for us, from the digni- 
ty of the union to which it is admitted, from the promises of assis- 
tance and acceptance in the work to be accomplished, and from 
the glorious reward of it, heir of all things, and judge of the 
world, to which, in the person of the Son of God, it is exalted, 

Now what end must be supposed accomplished by this per- 
sonal glory and dignity, mixed with those sufferings and death, 
which this son of God underwent ? — The moral works of God 
have all an end correspondent to the dignity of the means 
which he employs to accomplish them; as is clear from 
the perfection of his nature, and wisdom of his plans. 
How, then, could such glory be obscured by such ignominy, 
could such life be supposed subjected to such an accursed death, 
could such innocence be involved in the deepest consequences 
of guilt? Is there within the scope of human imagination an 
end that will justify this dispensation of the Almighty; but 
that great and singular one which justice and wisdom, in the 
absolutely perfect progress of their procedure could not at- 
tain, but by the death of that person, who could both die, and, 
in the dignity of his character, give infinite value to the act of 
his death? No! The sufferings of the Son of God, in our na- 
ture, were what the expiation of guilt demanded, and the ex- 
cellence of his character perfects this expiation. The word 
was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of his Father, full of grace 
and truth. When we were enemies we were reconciled to 
God by the death of his Son. 



136 



SANCTIFICATIO^ PROM GUILT. 



But I remark, in the second place, that Christ must have by 
his blood obtained the remission of the sins of his people, from 
the contrast which is slated in the scriptures between the purifica- 
tion obtained by the sacrifices under the law of the Jewish 
economy, and that purification which they ascribe to Christ. 

That the sacrifices under the Jewish dispensation did make 
an atonement, according to the end for which they were ap- 
pointed, is indubitable from the whole voice of scripture. The 
unanimous voice of the innumerable passages which mention 
the Jews' sin-offerings is, that, in one respect, a ceremonial, 
they make an atonement; and their burnt-offerings, which 
were the first transcript in their positive economy taken from 
their sin-offerings on the great day of atonement, and were dis- 
tinguished from them only by producing a sweet smelling savor 
unto God, in all their history among the patriarchs, where they 
were alone simple as the first passover, and in the Mosaic econ- 
omy, where they spread out into a great variety, are uniformly 
said to be an acceptable atonement unto God. Whatever is 
the pollution or vice, the trangression or offence of Israel, 
these sacrifices purge them by their blood. — To this view, there 
is not the shadow of an objection, in the fact, that there were 
some sins in Israel, such as murder, adultery, and idolatry, 
for which no sacrificial atonement was appointed nor allowed. 
The perpetrators of these sins, as soon as their guilt was as- 
certained, and the unhappy character into which they had en- 
tered appeared, died, and absconded from the name and privi- 
leges of Israel. We speak of Israelites as the sons of Jacob, — 
purged and preserved till the circle of their emblematical econ- 
omy is filled up and evanishes. 

This atonement, however, which was made for ancient Israel 
was typical and ceremonial only; and Christ is the substance 
of which these sacrifices that so undoubtedly made it, were a 
shadow. — In many places of the New Testament, and indeed 
in the whole of this epistle to the Hebrews, is Christ oppo- 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



137 



sed to the Jewish sacrifioes, and exhibited as the antitype of 
them* Remembering that particulars are included under gen- 
eral views, we see, that the whole of the Jewish dispensation 
is contrasted with that of the Christian j particularly in Paul's 
epistles to the Galatians, the Ephesians, and the Colossians, 
and the subservient, introductory, and typical nature of the 
former, clearly and incontrovertibly established. In particular, 
as evidencing a typical relation to Christ, the great antitype 
that gives virtue and efficacy to every dispensation, it is said, 
in almost interchangeable expressions in all these epistles, that 
Christ by his death exhibited the body of which the legal sa- 
crifices were a shadow, and abolished in his flesh the law of 
commandments contained in ordinances. He blotted out, says 
Paul expressly to the Colossians, the hand writing of ordinan- 
ces that was against us, and which was contrary unto us, and 
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Indeed, the 
whole of the writings of the New Testament conspire to the 
establishment of this very point. Christ came, say the gospels, 
to destroy the Jewish temple, and to raise it up again, in its 
spiritual character, in three days. What the law, says Paul to 
the Romans, could not do in that it was weak through the 
flesh, God, in sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful 
flesh, hath performed. Before the Corinthians, Christ is the 
passover sacrificed for us, and the rock smitten. And in all 
the speeches recorded in the Acts of the Apostles — the sacred 
orators, in the solemnity of persecution and death, review the 
promises of the Fathers, and the privileges that were once so 
discriminative of the beloved of God, and proclaim that their 
reign is terminated, and that the kingdom of heaven, under the 
Prince of Life, whom they had crucified, has now appeared 
amongst men. 

But for the establishment of this momentous truth, the man- 
ner in which the spirit of inspiration conducts this epistle, af- 
fords us the most clear, decisive, and irrefragable proofs. The 
whole scope of this epistle is to establish, from the Old Testa* 



138 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



raent scriptures, the divinity of the New Testament dispensa- 
tion, and the superiority of this dispensation to that which was 
introductory to it. In the beginning of it, its superiority in 
regard to its author in his official character, as the great pro- 
phet and high priest of our profession, is elucidated; and then 
comes before our view the shadowy and ineffectual temple and 
sacrifices of the priesthood of Aaron, compared with the sub- 
stantial and efficacious sacrifice of him, who, by the oath of 
God, had been constituted a priest after the order of Melchise- 
dec. In particular, in the ninth and tenth chapters, the inferi- 
ority and typical import of the Jewish sacrifices, and on the 
other hand the effectual and all-prevalent virtue of the sacri- 
fice of Christ, is proved beyond the power of sophistry to be- 
stow the least coloring on a contrary opinion . Here the chain 
of nervous and close reasoning, of appropriate and unambigu- 
ous expressions, will neither yield nor be mistaken. For the 
law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very 
image of the things, can never make the comers thereunto per- 
fect; but (it is spoken in immediate contrast) Christ, by the 
one offering of himself, for ever perfected them who are sancti- 
fied. — In a word, two priesthoods are, from the fifth chapter 
of this epistle, obviously compared ; both are ordained for men 
in things pertaining to God ; both offer gifts and sacrifices ; the 
sacrifices of the one may satisfy to the purifying of the flesh, but 
cannot purge the conscience — their economy therefore waxeth 
old and vanisheth away : the other purges the conscience by 
being once offered, ceases to be repeated because the end of 
perfection is attained ; and it is the whole and only offering of 
the priesthood of that moral dispensation where the character is 
cleansed and the heart is purified. If the sacrifices of the law, 
those sacrifices that made an atonement, were not types of 
Christ and he their formal antitype, contraries ought not to 
be contrasted, shadows ought not to be either compared with 
them, or to be distinguished from their substances , 



8AXCTIFICATI0N FROM GUILT. 139 

If, however, my brethren, the sacrifices under the law made 
a typical atonement, and if Christ be the antitype of these 
sacrifices, it will follow, that he made a real atonement. For 
does not the very notion of a figure and that which it repre- 
sents establish this part of our inquiry ? Are not the sign and 
the thing signified relative concerns; and the reality found 
always in the principal, the appearance of which is exhibited 
in a portraiture of representation ? Is the image reflected in the 
mirror without the reality presenting itself before it? Is the 
shadow of the forest on the mountain's top seen waving in the 
breeze, and forming with surrounding objects a beautiful 
landscape in the lake below, without the existence of such a 
mountain and forest really in nature? No, every shadow 
must bear a relation to a substantial object, every figure to a 
reality ; and the types which under the Old Testament dis- 
pensation by ceremonial expiations prefigured Christ, and 
which only prefigured him, must present him to us as making 
a real atonement. Yes, if the whole of the language of scrip- 
ture and reasonings of the apostles in stating a contrast be- 
tween the Jewish dispensation and its sacrifices; and the 
christian dispensation and its great sacrifice, which sprinkles 
every page of its law, and every person of its spiritual Israel, 
be not beyond parallel unappropriate and unmeaning, we have 
a second demonstrative argument that Christ has purified his 
people from guilt. 

But I observe, thirdly, that it appears that in sanctifying 
his people by his blood, Christ procured remission of sins for 
them, from the attitudes and stations which his death is re- 
presented to assume in the field of revelation. 

In the first stay and prop of fallen man, the words which 
are both prophetical and promissory, present Christ as combat- 
ing Satan the old Serpent, as wounding and being wounded, 
and thus achieving our salvation. The seal of that promise 
of God to Abraham which begat his faith and preserved 



140 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



it, distilling joys and consolations, as he wandered a pilgrim 
on earth without any fixed habitation, was a sign of blood in 
the flesh of Abraham, which taught him that the joy and con- 
solation which he experienced, were not from the simple exer- 
cise of faith on the promise of an absolute God, but of that 
faith which feeds upon its peculiar object that is afterwards to 
be revealed as bearing the cup of salvation filled from its own 
blood. When the first born of Israel were dedicated to the 
Lord, as a type of the seed of him who is the first born of 
every creature, they were sanctified by the blood and death of 
those victims, which we have already shown to be figures of 
the real sacrifice of the Son of God. When the psalmist is 
about to predict that a seed shall serve Christ in every age, he 
previously surveys the dismal scene on which he purchases 
the honorable prospect ; and beholding the dark clouds that 
gather around him, and the tempest they pour upon his head, 
about to write it in a song of mourning for the church, in the 
very first words, he anticipates the expressions of the expiring 
Jesus, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 
Isaiah looks into his endless kingdom, and sees in Christ's 
hand the grand plans of infinite wisdom advancing; he sees 
him prolonging his days, and the pleasure of the Lord pros- 
pering in his hand; but just before this grand prospect arises 
to view, the spirit has been leading the prophet to see him as 
a lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers 
is dumb, so opening not his moutb. Daniel who saw 
kingdoms rise and fall, saw, among the rest of his illustrious 
visions, that holy city and its walls, for the present restoration 
of which he so successfully prayed, after it had been built and 
had stood for ages, yet overturned and its sanctuary destroyed, 
—-he saw the sacrifice and oblation of Israel cease for ever; 
and yet he sees an end made of sins, reconciliation made for 
iniquity, an everlasting righteousness brought in, the vision 
and prophecy sealed up, and the most holy anointed j — and all 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



141 



this at the moment when Messiah is cut off, but not for him- 
self. 

The prophecies reach their fulfilment on the page of history, 
and the morning star that ushers in the clear day of New Tes- 
tament privileges appears: — the voice of one crying in the wil- 
derness, says, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his 
paths straight:" — the children of Israel assemble around John 
the Baptist, and believe him a prophet : — he solemnizes them 
by preaching the doctrine of repentance : — he fills them wit h 
the wonders of faith, saying, I baptise you with water unto re- 
pentance, but he that cometh after me, is mightier than f, 
whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptise yOu 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire: — heaven marks this great 
and expected character by a sign, and a voice, saying, this is 
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased : — and, after all 
this preparation, and amidst all this solemnity, John, the har- 
binger, says of this Son of God, as he advances towards bin?, 
and 'has attracted his eye among a great crowd of spectators, 
w Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world." — On the passover where the lamb was sacrificed that 
occasioned this beloved Son to be thus called the Lamb of God, 
Jesus and his disciples attend, when all things are ready for 
the Son of man going as it had been written of him ; and with 
a certain prospect of his death just "before him, he takes th«. 
cup which contains the wine of the paschal feast, and abroga- 
ting the Old Testament institutions by virtue of the introduc- 
tion of a new and better testament, he says, " this cup is the 
new testament in my blood shed for the remission of the sins 
of many; drink ye all of it." — Miracles, rny brethren, of various 
kinds, and of a stupendous nature, did Christ perform, arid 
into glory was he transfigured; but although some of the former 
might have been selected, and made to be the admiration and 
praise of the church to the end of time, had Jesus' death been 
an evidence only of his divine mission, and not our sanctifica- 
tk»a from the guiit of sin; and although the latter shone tise 
13 



142 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT* 



brightest of the marks of his history, if his honor only had to 
be kept in perpetual remembrance; yet, we see, that when 
Christ is to summon the world around him, and to enlist all their 
admiration and praise towards his character, he does not show 
himself with the dead rising at his call; or the sea subsiding 
at his reproof; or in the glory of transfiguration, where his 
countenance is like the sun, and his raiment like the light of 
the sun; but he singles out the sign of the prophet Jonas, the 
death that he is now to accomplish at Jerusalem, on this event 
he hangs the whole glory of the New Testament dispensation, 
and to it he turns the admiration and praise of his followers till 
the end of time* — Do this in remembrance of me. The saints 
in the heavenly Jerusalem have attained perfection; their 
knowledge is unclouded, their halleluiahs need no more the 
incense of intercession; and yet by the laws of their glorious 
abode and as the natural birth of their attained perfection, 
they, looking on the Son of God as a Lamb that had been 
slain, exclaim, " unto him that loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and to his Father, be honor and glory forever and ever, 
amen.- — Great God t can any believe that the death of Jesus, 
which is the burden of Old Testament prophecy, which, in the 
inspirations of the New Testament, throws into shade all the 
miracles and glory of Christ, which stands alone as the great 
object of wonder and sacred praise to all his followers, and 
which the triumphant church still alone celebrates, is intended 
for no higher purpose, according to the opinion of some pro- 
fessing christians, than an evidence of sincerity in a great pro- 
phet?— as the death of Paul, and of Peter, and of all martyrs 
is an evidence that it is truly their belief they delivered to the 
world? Is not the cup of the new testament in Christ's 
Wood, filled with the blood of a real atonement, the blood 
shed for the remission of sins? 

Let us look around through the wide prospects of revelation : 
If it be the sanctification we have pointed out, those scriptures 



SANCTIFICATIOIf FROM GUILT. 



143 



which address men in all circumstances and conditions of life, 
and which borrow language from all the scenes of their joy or 
mourning, will not leave us without gathering illustrations 
from all quarters to this momentous topic. Throughout the 
whole world at the time that J esus suffered, and when his disciples 
described in writing the nature and end of his sufferings, there 
were sacrifices offered, and it was believed that those whose 
blood was shed were sacrifices expiatory of guilt: But while 
the offerers might have been mistaken as to the particular at- 
tainment of the victims which they led to the altar to render 
their Gods propitious to them; under the spirit of inspiration, the 
language which expressed their belief, is borrowed by the apos- 
tles and applied to Chrisf s death, without explanation or hesi- 
tation; and they distinguish it from all sacrifices of thanks- 
giving in this pointed manner, u He was sacrificed for us, he is 
the propitiation for our sin, through whom we have the atone- 
ment, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared 
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself . n — But the world 
long oppressed in misery, cannot be mistaken respecting the 
language which describes the redemption of those captives 
whose definite character, and substantial ransom, ancient war- 
fare had so long established. Is Jesus' death called a ransom? 
is it so called without hesitation ? is the language repeated by 
the spirit of inspiration and still supposed sufficiently clear? — 
Be assured, it is not intended, by this artless but impressive 
use of the instrument of conveying human thought, to steal 
unawares the chains of falsehood upon the disciples of the re- 
ligion of Christ, and to immure them for ever in the darkness 
of error. No, I see the light of the Sun of Righteousness and feel 
his warmth, under a cloudless sky, whenever I read these ex- 
pressions and such like, " He gave himself for us, that he might 
redeem us from all iniquity: In whom we have redemption 
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins: He was made of i 
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were un- 
der the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" — 



144 SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 

Moreover, a sense of property is a principle that has ever oper- 
ated in human nature, it has operated by leading one to view 
his own stock, and to compare it with the stock of thousands 
around, and then to seek to transfer the least desirable in his 
own possession for what he esteems more highly in the posses- 
sion of his neighbors; and the words to buy, to purchase, never 
floated, in the atmosphere of human society, vague and unde- 
fined, but in all ages comprised the discriminations which hu- 
man interests ascertain and so often review ; and when meta- 
phorically applied to moral subjects, the analogical meaning 
which truth and justice affix to them is equally strict, and 
equally recognizes a change of relations on the principle of a 
standard of equity. But Christ hath bought us with a price, 
he hath purchased to himself a people, he hath bought us not 
with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with his own 
precious blood. — Hence I am forced to conclude that though 
the love of God to us be the spring of our salvation ; yet God 
is so holy, and so determined to show his perfect equity to all 
his intelligent creatures, that, in his character of moral gover- 
nor of the universe, he will not part with a sentence of pardon 
for the robbery that has been committed on the prerogatives of 
his holy law, till , in moral reckoning, the last farthing has 
been paid to punitive justice. — But, in a word, we are sinners, 
God, as scripture declares, has been offended by us,- and our 
reconciliation to this offended God has been effected by the 
death of Christ. When we were enemies we were reconciled 
to God by the death of his son. Collect, my brethren, your 
powers of reason around this view of the sufferings and sacri- 
fice of the son of God. — Reconciliation to God is not said to be 
accomplished by persuasion, by peculiar words that dropped from 
Christ upon the cross, and which appeased an offended Deity, 
and turned the hearts of sinners towards him. Throughout 
revelation, it is the act of Christ's death itself, that is represent- 
ed as the cause of reconciliation, and in numberless forms is 
shown to our eye, as the only object, that God will admit to 



SAkCTXFICATION FROM GUILT. 

be honored with the renown of this blessed achievement. 
Truth never flowed so sweetly from the lips of the speaker as 
from those of Jesus, and never were such incontrovertible evi_ 
dences of this truth being delivered by a messenger of heaven , 
as shone in the miracles, which, during his life and at his resur- 
rection, took place; but the excellence of his instructions, and 
the omnipotence of his miracles, lie in undisturbed obscurity, 
and not an object does the spirit of God, in this great and joy- 
ful business of reconciliation, press on our sense, as the noble 
cause of accomplishing it, but the sufferings and death of him 
who is the Son of God. Why, oh! hearers, has murder been 
condemned by the eternal law of righteousness, why has the 
murder of the innocent been considered an aggravation of the 
crime, why has the murder of the prophets, and holy men of 
God, been branded with marks of his hottest displeasure, if the 
death of the apostle and high priest of our profession, is, thus 
viewed in the light of simple death only, an odor of a sweet 
smell unto God ? This death of Christ reconciles all things in 
heaven and in earth unto God ; but if this be not, by being a 
satisfaction to infinite justice, reason is bewildered ; eternally 
bewildered, in reflecting upon God's passing by all wonders of 
providence, and all other points of the miraculous history of 
Jesus, and fixing the eye of men and angels upon this one 
event as the only means of reconciliation of sinners to himself; 
this event which is so abhorrent every where else; this event, 
the ignominious nature of which would have made his histo- 
rians, had they considered it as a violent natural occurrence 
only, seldom advert to it, whilst every page would have teemed 
with the splendor of his miracles, and the glory of his resur- 
rection; this event which stands as a mere account of murder 
between God and ancient infidel Israel, who imbrued their hands 
in his blood, that Israel, who for this daring crime, are, in their 
children, under a rod of vengeance to this day ; the event which, 
however, distinguishes the believing Israel, throughout scrip- 
ture, with that adoption which is a complete contrast to this 

13* 



146 



SANCTIFICATTON FROM GUILT. 



miserable rejection of the Jews ; the event which stands and 
will stand on every leaf of the New Testament, the joy and 
exultation of those apostles who saw it once as the death only 
of their master, and all forsook it and fled ; but who received the 
promise of the Father, and then received it, as the redemption, 
not by the power of their Mesiah's life of temporal Israel, but 
by the atonement of his death, of that Israel with whom is made 
the new covenant in 'his blood. 

But I have not yet done with my elucidation of the scriptu- 
ral station of the death of Christ. Christians, the apostles and 
prophets were inspired in all the messages which from heaven 
they bore to men, and the truths which they uttered were the 
uncontaminated favors of infinite wisdom. In vindication of 
their sincerity in communicating the impulses of the spirit only, 
they submitted to every hardship, and to death itself; they 
were stoned, they were sawn assunder, they were slain with 
the sword, they were crucified : but wonderful to tell, revelation 
has passed over, after giving long histories of their lives, all 
these memorable exits of apostles and prophets, as if their death, 
after they had served their generation, were not worthy to oc- 
cupy a line of revelation, or a thought of immortal man. Mo- 
ses was a prophet and legislator; but what says the spirit of his 
death? His life is minutely described His birth, his expo- 
sure, his flight, his marriage, his circumcision, his miracles, his 
grief, his divine conferences, his intercessions; but his death is 
out of the view of men, and is reckoned unworthy of a single 
letter from the pen of inspiration. Some have said that Isaiah 
was sawn assunder. Who knows? Is Isaiah's death of any 
interest to the world? He was a holy man; but his death is 
less taken notice of in inspiration than the path of the raven 
which Noah sent from the ark, and which went to and fro till 
the waters were abated. Of Peter it has been said that he was 
crucified, and with his head downwards at his own request. 
But is this a certainty? Ancient history states it. But 
whether it was so or not is a matter of no more moment to us, 



3A NOTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



147 



than what became of the blossoms of Aaron's miraculous rod. 
Of Paul it is said that he was beheaded. It may be so. Is it 
any matter to angels or men whether it was so or not? His 
exertions may have had a greater influence on the condition of 
mankind than those of any other man ; but his death has no 
more connexion with their welfare than have the particles of 
the dust of his body which lie in total unconcern to mankind 
till the morning of the resurrection. But the death of Jesus — 
this is portrayed in every page, this is declared by God to be 
the cause of reconciling the world to himself, this borrows il- 
lustrations from all the practices and ways of men to recom- 
mend it as a real satisfaction ; it is called a sacrifice, a sacrifice 
for sin, an atonement, a propitiation, a redemption, a price, a 
value of purchase; — this is made the great centre around which 
the songs of the church militant and triumphant for ever ascend 
and swell into the highest anthem ; — this appears in all the 
visions of the prophets as the cause of all things dedicated by 
blood. Oh! my hearers, this is the event which arises amidst 
the rise and fall of empires, to connect into a focus, the scatter- 
ing rays of providence amongst the nations, where God's good- 
ness had been known by rains and fruitful seasons only, or 
where it had shone brighter in emblems of the unspeakable gift 
of God ; this is the event that brings heaven and earth into per- 
petual fellowship and one eternal family. For it pleased the 
Father that in him should all fulness dwell, and having made 
peace through the blood of his cross : by him to reconcile all 
things to himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in hea- 
ven, or things in earth. Col. 1:19, 20. 

Oh ! my brethren, what an empty concern engages the atten- 
tion of the righteous inhabitants of this universe, if the death of 
Christ be not the price which eternal justice has set upon the re- 
lease of our immortal souls ! The creator, by his words, by the 
usages he hath appointed, by the prophecies he hath uttered, by 
the descriptions which he hath given, by the ordinances which he 
hath instituted, by the heavenly exercises which he hath lighted 



148 SAKCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 

up among the angels and the spirits of the just, is making a 
chorus as when at the birth of creation the sons of God shouted 
fox joy : — And for what is it ? I intend no impiety by what I 
state. — It is to afford a complete contrast to the wisdom of the 
morning stars when they sang together. Nothing is more 
sublime and beautiful than this expression respecting the de- 
votion of the heavenly host when the foundations of our earth 
were laid. But now the creation tunes its harps, and not for a 
morning, but for eternity, to celebrate a fabric that is made 
mighty and grand by false colors only ; as if the Deity had be- 
come weak, and yet still wanted his renown. — My brethren, I 
believe that if the death of Christ had not been an atonement, 
the creator of this universe would not have spoken of it from 
the beginning of time, and in every page of the New Testa- 
ment, as he has done ; but would have given a different charac- 
ter to the whole of his revealed will. Had not Christ been his 
eternal Son and his death the redemption of the world, I be- 
lieve he would have put another subject into the mouths of 
immortal beings and especially those who are immediately 
around his throne ; I believe he would have given them some- 
thing worthy of his wisdom and omnipotence to celebrate; — if 
it had been only his sweeping off, in the last and most perfect 
of his dispensations, the refuge of lies into which, in some 
sense, the whole world, in its expiatory sacrifices, had entered. 
Yes, God ought, my brethren, to have banished not only the su- 
perstition of the Gentiles and the ceremonies of the Jews from 
our world; he ought to have set his mark of reprobation on the 



very language which had become so sacred and so deceitful by 
its use on the most solemn occasions. — But while the sun and 
the moon endure every thing will be the very reverse. 

For, my brethren, I must be permitted a word further in sup- 
port of the atonement of Christ, from the solemnities of the 
offering of this day. This is the day of our great New Testa- 



ment festival. Some have supposed that there are many days 
of sacred commemoration, if not instituted, at least authorized 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



149 



by God ; sach as solemn memorials of the resurrection and as- 
cension of Christ. But I must state my belief to you. Had 
God appointed a commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, 
or of any miracle wrought, in confirmation of the truth of our 
holy religion, as he has appointed the solemnities of this day, 
I would tell you, that though the expressions of revelation and 
innumerable views in it, seem to proclaim the truth of the 
atonement ; yet it wants that singularity of elevation to which, 
on the supposition of its being the price paid on the table of 
eternal justice, I would anticipate that it would be exalted. 
Elevate any thing else,- the brightest of divine operations 
which can be the evidence of the heavenly origin of our hopes 
into the station of a commemorative ordinance to which God 
binds our conscience, I must believe that there is a singular 
worth and substance in it exactly proportioned to the dignity 
to which it is supposed elevated. 

Had God commanded, my brethren, the children of Israel to 
keep up the memorial of Abraham's standing beside the three 
angels while they feasted at his table ; had they been directed 
to commemorate the passage of the Red Sea, or the manna 
which supported them forty years in the wilderness ; had chris- 
tians been bound in the temple of the Lord, to commemorate 
the power of Christ when he said, Lazarus come forth; had 
they been bound to commemorate his ascension, or the descent 
of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 1 would have said that 
the divine ordinations place many things on a parallel, and the 
design of the one must, in the estimation of God, be equal to that 
of the other. 

But, my brethren, the scriptures from beginning to end are 
astonishingly cautious on this head . They will exalt nothing to 
the dignity of a commemorative ordinance, but blood. The 
manna will be allowed its little pot, the Red Sea will have a 
historical record; but circumcision and the passover are the 
solemn sacraments of the Old Testament. 



150 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



And what is the sun of the New Testament dispensation, 
which presents to our eye heaven's unequivocal appointment of 
an ordinance where we dare not eat and drink unworthily with- 
out being guilty of the body and blood of the Lord? Ah! my 
brethren, remember what Moses and Elias came from heaven 
to speak about; remember what the angels desire to look into; 
remember your Saviour with the bread and the cup in his 
hands; and hear his voice, — this is my body broken for you, this 
do in remembrance of me — and this cup is the New Testament 
in my blood, shed for the remission of the sins of many, drink 
ye all of it, — and you will see that in divine reckoning there is 
an event which has a spirit and substance in it above all 
others. 

What an ordinance, my brethren, is this which to-day we 
are to celebrate? It illustrates divine justice; interprets the 
ritual of Israel; it is a key to the predictions of revelation; it in- 
troduces God as a wise teacher speaking plain and intelligible 
language to his children about the death of his Son ; it justifies 
the solemnity of our religious assemblings to hear of the blood 
of sprinkling, and it shows us that there is some meaning in 
this song of the triumphant church, " Thou art worthy to take 
the book and to open the seals thereof ; for thou wast slain and 
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." 

This blood, in the cup of our new covenant, is the blood of 
sprinkling; but, ah! my brethren, is there any unholy and im- 
pious communicant? He will be sprinkled as with the drops 
of metal from the glowing furnace; for our God is a consuming 
fire. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drink- 
eth damnation to himself. But a worthy communicant! what 
is said of him? He is sprinkled with the spirit of promise and 
of assistance ; and will appear, after a little, in heaven, among 
them who have washed their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb. — Yes, my brethren, for you are called in 
scripture priests of the most high God, and you are called the 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 161 

temple of God; and you see the exquisite propriety, from the 
whole tenor of the ritual of the Old Testament, and from the 
fundamental principles of the New Testament, of God's be- 
stowing upon you these appellations. — Aaron was called of 
God ; but the call was given to him through Moses ; and the 
authority of it was not expressed in all its formalities till Moses 
sprinkled him, and every part of his garments, with the blood 
of sacrifice. In this manner he was dedicated unto the ser- 
vice of God ; and it is as you are sprinkled with the blood of 
the great sacrifice which was offered up through the eternal 
spirit without spot unto God, that you are purged from dead 
works, to become a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar 
people unto God. — They were not the materials of the tern 
pie considered in itself, not even the ark of the covenant, and 
the law and the mercy-seat, which made it a holy fabric of di- 
vine service ; the book of the law, the ark of the covenant, and 
the mercy -seat, and all the furniture of the tabernaole, were all 
sprinkled with the blood of atonement, and thus they were dedi- 
cated unto God ; and so, as you are God's temple, there is not 
an igward recess of your nature, nor a plan of holiness in your 
heart, nor a form of it that appears in your life, but which, in 
the estimation of heaven, is dedicated to divine acceptance by 
the blood of Christ. k< And almost all things are by the law 
purged by blood ; and without shedding of blood is no remis- 
sion. It was, therefore, necessary that the patterns of things 
in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly 
things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For 
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, 
which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now 
to appear in the presence of God for us." — Yes, ye firstborn, 
whose robes are whiter than any fuller can whiten them, the de- 
stroying angel may pass around us ; but as we are God's Israel, 
our names are written in heaven, and the angel has received 
a command to mark the door-posts and the lintels of our door 



152 



SANCTIFICATION FROM GUILT. 



on which is the blood of sprinkling. As he passes, he must 
utter the declaration, Behold the blood that cleanses from all 
sin. There they eat, and drink, and are satisfied ; and start 
with their loins girt and their lamps burning to the possession 
of their promised land. — Yea, I hear the angel of the covenant 
himself speak; what says he? Come ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world. Amen. 



DISCOURSE VII. 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



Heb. 13:12. Wherefore Jesus also , that he might sanctify 
the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. 

The next thing, respecting the sanctification of the people 
by the blood of Christ, to be demonstrated, is, that Christ puri- 
fied them by that perfection of obedience, which bestows, in 
the eye of justice, a claim upon them, to the holiness and glory 
of the heavenly state. 

There are some who have imagined that the atonement of 
Christ, or his sufferings relative to the penalty of the law, was 
all that justice could demand in order that eternal life might 
be enjoyed by those in whose stead his sufferings were sus- 
tained. Many, otherwise correct in their sentiments, assert 
that the law of God is fulfilled by punishment only. They 
aver that punishment is, in moral reckoning, a reparation 
of the law, restoring to it, through its penalty, every iota of 
which the transgression is supposed to have bereaved it in its 
precept; and so, say they, it must be esteemed a full comple- 
tion of all its demands. Sin, say they, is exactly the coun- 
terpart of the duty that was to be performed, and the sufferings 
of Christ were exactly answerable to the demerit of the sin for 
which he suffered; therefore, they conclude, the law of our 
nature must be fulfilled merely by the sufferings of Christ. 

Were this to be granted, it ought to be remembered, that if 
from scripture we could establish to a moral certainty, that the 
14 



i54 



SAXCTIFICATIOSr TO LITE, 



virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, viewed thus more simply in its 
nature, did establish the rights of his people to heaven on s 
foundation of holiness, then, the issue of our inquiry on this 
part of our subject, would be the same, as if his obedience did 
divifle into another and kindred relation. 

But the reasoning we have repeated, in out view, evidently 
embraces an ingenious sophism, The law of God requires 
direct and uninterrupted obedience from his creature, no less 
when suffering for his offences, than when in an innocent 
state; obedience, too, not only in voluntarily suffering the 
punishment due to it from the immutable majesty of justice: 
but obedience to the primary precept of the law which imposes 
our duty upon us just as creatures of God. The remunerative 
obedience that encounters and satisfies punitive justice, is per- 
formed, in another moral habit of character, and to another 
view of the law, than that which lays hold upon us, and with 
an attribute of immutability correspondent to the perfection of 
God's holy character, of which it is a transcript, leads us for- 
ward, through the lines of our existence, just as the moral and 
accountable creatures of God. It ought never to be forgotten 
that the original relations of the intelligent creature, subject it 
+ o a necessity of direct and continual compliance with the pri- 
mary laws of its nature, into what state soever it may accident- 
ally precipitate itself by its own transgressions. Hence even 
in a state of suffering, deemed satisfactory for the offences for 
which the person has been subjected to it, there must be, in 
the form of duty, positive obedience, distinct from this volun- 
tary and penal suffering, in order that all the relations of the 
taw of God mcy be fully obtemperated. 

Nor, let me remark, can this relation of the law be fulfilled, 
Us some others would appear to think, by that faith, which un- 
der tlx© dispensation of mercy, is presented as the means of 
arming us to Christ, our representative; and who is supposed 
to Irave satisfied the penalty of the law for us. The mind that 
Mdd rest in this view of the subject, that would consider 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



S55 



faith under the gospel dispensation as substituted for the origi- 
nal duty of man, never has investigated them, and thoroughly 
misunderstands the fundamental laws of morality. Christian 
faith, indeed, as soon as ever the relation in which the Media- 
tor stands to sinners is made known, becomes a moral duty, 
and man is bound to the exercise of it, no less than to that of 
the duties which spring out of the original relations of his con- 
stitution; but it can never be said that it is substituted in the 
room of these duties, and that faith in Christ is now the primary 
law of the creature. What! can God free his creature absolute- 
ly, and in every respect, from those original laws by which its 
moral nature is constitute:! — -which give it, morally considered, 
its very existence? No, faith under the gospel, as it is a duty, 
presupposes the moral character of the creature, and the law 
which governs it ; the infraction of this law, and its reparation 
by our surety; and then it enjoins a dependence upon him for 
salvation; but faith in the Mediator, never can be consider- 
ed formally a part even of the original law of our nature. 
The perfections of Deity, while they enjoin always a circle of 
obedience that is as wide as existing moral relations, yet, could 
never enjoin the exercise of faith in a Mediator, in those rela- 
tions, the moral voice of which excluded the exhibition of a 
mediatorial character. We are not now speaking of faith in 
God, as he is our Creator; and that faith which in the dispen- 
sation of grace, God enjoins, by an expression of his will pure- 
ly moral, (since, it is obvious, he could no more appoint his 
eternal Son to be our Mediator without requiring faith in his 
mediatorial character, than he could create an intelligent crea 
ture without requiring faith in himself as Creator,) this faith, 
we say, thus morally founded and enjoined, and the actual ex- 
ercise of obedience relative to which, scripture informs us, is a 
pure grace, embraces Christ, its object, as a complete SavioJir, 
who, in order that the sinner might be saved, hath fulfilled the 
law, in both its claims of punishment and obedience, which k 
iiad upon the sincer 3 and it tells that his salvation -comes. j?,at 



156 



SANCTIFICATlOJT TO LIFE. 



by the works of the law, but by the free grace of God; but this 
faith, on the scale of moral relations, ean never rise to a higher 
station than this, nor a greater end. 

1 am aware, that against the actual purchase of heaven by 
the merits of Christ, and particularly by his positive obedience, 
as we presume it necessary to be, there have been especially 
two prejudices entertained. Some have maintained that the 
actual purchase of heaven by that price on account of which the 
law must proclaim it to be ours, militates against the free and 
gracious origin of our salvation ; while others say, that it de- 
stroys, by laying a moral claim upon God's justice, the duty 
and necessity of believers, during the course of their life of 
faith, pleading sincerely and humbly for the blessings of God's 
mercy. 

But, have not the former forgot, that a sinner's salvation, 
can be, by an absolutely perfect God, only relatively free? 
The origin of our salvation is the offspring of mercy, unmixed 
as the purest ray that shone on Eden, and the application of it 
to us as miserable and wretched criminals on whom the axe of 
justice is falling to destroy, is as much the sovereign grace of 
God, as Israel's manna that came from the chambers of the 
dew ; but as we are represented in Christ, our salvation is 
strictly the reward of the duty that had been appointed to us, 
and which we, through him, do perform. The promises of God 
are all unmerited, primarily viewed; but none of these promi- 
ses are made to us but through Christ; and while the promises 
themselves have all the character originally considered we 
have ascribed to them; both the promises to the Mediator him- 
self, and also to us by him; yet, the blessings which are the 
realization of these promises, we aver, are strictly, in moral 
reckoning, the reward of obedience perfectly performed. If 
they be not, why is heaven expected for Christ's sake? Why 
are we begotten through a lively hope by the resurrection of 
Christ from the dead to it as incorruptible and undefiled? 
Why does Paul, in his reasoning in his first and second chap- 



Hi 



ters in his epistle to the Ephesians, not only set us in heavenly 
places in Christ in the spiritual dispensation of the gospel, but 
in the conclusion of his admirable reasoning on this subject, 
personally with Christ in the heavenly inheritance itself? 

In relation unto the other objectors, I would ask, is it from 
a doubt or disbelief of any part of the law of our nature being 
fulfilled by Christy or of the rights of our eternal possession 
being settled in the court of heaven by our advocate within the 
^ail, that they imagine, that the propriety of a christians press- 
ing his humble petitions before his sovereign Father, is to ap- 
pear? Does not the christian pray, and become animated with 
importunity, that his interest in Christ may be secured, and 
that God's glory by him in this relation of dependence on 
Christ, may be promoted? Does the christian in his prayers 
actuate the character of a creature purely, or is it that of a re- 
deemed one, and anew creature? Opens he his eye under the 
absolute throne of the eternal, or as he would behold the face 
of God reconciled to him by Jesus Christ? By Christ as the 
way he approaches ; on his name, as the foundation of his hope, 
-he takes his stand; and he believes that he is to obtain mercy, 
and find grace to help him, by this confident method only of 
access to God„ Heaven, then, may be secured to the elect by 
a title that justice will infallibly protect; and yet, at the same 
time, the members of the visible church of Christ, so weak, so 
tempted, so ready to forget God, have a foundation for prayer 
equally disencumbered here, as the duty of the creature is, 
compared with the immanent acts of Deity; and, as we should 
expect it to be, bearing a striking analogy to that mysterious 
relation. 

That Christ did fulfil the precept of the law, and in fulfilling 
it procured actually that title to eternal life which is the sub- 
ject of our inquiry, is clear from the following considerations. 

First, the precept of the law of God must be fulfilled pre- 
viously to any creature coming to heaven. If we have been 
correct in our analysis of the original relations of the creature, 

14* 



158 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



and of the unalterable voice of the law in its primary feature of 
obligation, it is impossible, that this creature can be admitted 
into heaven and happiness, unless the law of his nature be ful- 
filled , either by his own obedience, or that of an approved sub- 
stitute. The law of God, founded in the relations of the 
creature, is of eternal obligation, and must, if God be just and 
righteous, ere this creature enter into the enjoyment of the ho- 
liest of all, be entirely clothed with perfect obedience. Hence, 
say the scriptures, heaven and earth may pass away, but one 
iota of the law never shall fail. — This precept of the law, in- 
deed, reaching to the heart and reins, and regulating all the 
movements and actions of life, man himself, it must be ac- 
knowledged on all hands, never could array with the beauties 
of perfection. It is not in man so to direct his steps as to strike 
out that lustre of universal and animated obedience, which, on 
the solemn day of God's adjusting accounts, will command his 
approbation ; and may for ever after do honor to the lineage 
which has filled the heavenly inheritance. But, could the Me- 
diator, the beloved Son of God, be made under this law, could 
his essential holiness and activity, be viewed as subjected to 
it, without magnifying and making it honorable? No! the 
Son of God was made of a woman; made under the law, to re- 
deem them that were under the law, That we might receive the 
adoption of sons. The word was made flesh and dwelt 
amongst us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only 
begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

Is it supposed that the law of our nature, in its penalty and 
precept, might be fulfilled; and yet, since the law of faith has 
a moral foundation, and comes into operation in the christian 
dispensation by the appointment of the Son of God to be our 
Mediator, that a title to heaven by the obedience of Christ can- 
not be supposed absolutely secured for sinners; — since it may 
be argued, that the dispensation which is founded in the rela- 
. tions morally constituted by the appointment and offer of the 
Mediator, call for the discharge of a duty the matter of which 



SANCTIPICATION TO LITE. 



159 



is extrinsical to the primary circle of duty that encompasses 
and binds man as a creature merely? 

This inquiry is seasonably made, to lead to its own answer, 
and also to assist us in illustrating the true relations of chris- 
tian faith. It is obvious that the mediation of Christ can be 
viewed in relation to this duty only two ways ; either as a foun- 
dation on which God addresses us as in general reconciled to 
mankind, and from which he offers us salvation on condition 
that we believe ; or as a means intellectual and moral by which, 
in a consistency with the principles of our nature, and the offer 
of Christ in the divine testimony, we may be actually united to 
him as our representative head. Whether with those who as- 
sert the gospel dispensation to be a new law to man of obtaining 
life, on a condition whose realization must ultimately be re- 
solved into the determinations of our own natural powers; or 
whether this dispensation only authoritatively prescribes the 
duty of faith as a means of effecting our union to Christ, must 
be ultimately determined, by an induction of evidence from the 
scriptures. They are the sacred records that develop the plan 
of our salvation, and which will lead us to conclude whether we 
are to consider Christ as a star with which we are to connect 
ourselves by independent appetencies of faith; or whether, in 
the heavenly places where Christ and his people are joined to- 
gether, God has made them all one planet, where the great 
central body describes the path that all the attendants follow, 
and follow, too, by the fundamental laws of their union; 
whether faith, in a word, has the power of self-direction, or whe- 
ther it be only a simple dependency on him, in whom our indi* 
vidual character is legally lost — till the last judgment is past, the 
mediatorial kingdom surrendered up to the Father, and God 
himself is all in all. — For, my brethren, if Christ could fully 
satisfy the law of our nature in all its demands; if he did 
do it, and if, in doing it, he did acquire a title actually to 
heaven for his people; then it will follow, if God is to ratify 

this right for his Son's sake, that their faith to whom it is rati- 



160 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE, 



fied forms a part of the plan of their salvation ; and that, though 
it be extrinsical to the obedience of the law of their nature, yet 
its operations are as infallibly secured, as the perfection of 
Christ's obedience is supposed necessarily to be approved of. 
In this way, indeed, of union to our head, the moral justifica* 
tion of man takes place purely for Christ's sake on the original 
law of the creature, and the faith and every grace of this crea- 
ture come to him through Christ, and it grows up itself unto 
the measure of the stature of a perfect man in him: while the 
despiser of the gospel will be condemned, not for the want 
merely of internal grace, but for rejecting and contemning a 
method of salvation, and neglecting an exercise, both of which 
are so suitable to his state and intellectual condition. 

Can any thing, my brethren, be more clearly proved from 
scripture, than that the economy of grace secures, by the moral 
value of the obedience of Christ, the title of his seed to heaven ; 
and that the life of faith is begotten by his spirit's gracious 
operations, not to co-operate to the same end with Christ's 
merits, but to fit and qualify for the enjoyment of what they pro- 
vide? — But our way is not yet prepared to see clearly how our 
views of this subject evolve from our general method of illus- 
trating the obedience of Christ. The relations of faith cannot 
spring up clearly and forcibly, till our proofs of Christ's positive 
obedience, and his purchase of heaven by it, collect their 
materials, and are about to finish with a full display of all their 
strength. 

I remark, therefore, secondly, that it appears that Christ 
prepares a title to heaven for his people, from all those passages 
of scripture which prove that Christ purchased his church to 
himself, compared with those that teach, that through him she 
obtains eternal life. The passages which show that he pur- 
chased the persons of his people, are, taking the word purchase 
as a general term answerable to all those that are equivalent to 
it in scripture, very many. We shall select a few only, where 
the words are most express and decisive. « Feed the church 



SANCTIFICATTON TO LITE. 



161 



of God which he hath purchased with his own blood :" " He 
shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure 
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand :" " He hath purchased ua 
to himself, a peculiar people, zealous of good works:" "He 
has bought us with a price." If the church be not the body of 
Christ, why is he the vine and she the branches? — why is he the 
foundation and she the building? — But if he did purchase her, 
from what state, and to what end, did the exchange take place? 
Without doubt, he redeemed her from the captivity of sin, and 
reinstated her in the privileges of that liberty, which he himself 
had provided for his bride, the Lamb's wife. Every one of the 
foregoing quotations, and all passages of scripture that are 
similar to them, incontestably aver, that this church, thus pur- _ 
chased, is Christ's own. — But for what could he purchase her 
as his own? Let the following scriptures answer this question : 
u That he might present us as holy and unblameable before 
him, namely, his Father, in love:" " That he might make us 
kings and priests unto God and his Father." — But could Christ 
thus present us before his Father, or, which is the same thing, 
put his people, free from all sin, into the possession of heaven, 
and this, too, under the notion of his own property and pur- 
chase, if he had not obtained a right, in the court of eternal 
justice, to introduce them into that holy place, and this, too, in 
such a relation to himself? No: these considerations, that 
they are said in scripture to be introduced into glory by Christ, 
and to be introduced as Christ's own body, make it incontro^ 
vertibly certain, that his people possess their title to the man- 
sions above, in the right of Christ's obedience. Hence it is 
expressly said in scripture, " your life is hid with Christ in 
God, and when he who is your life shall appear, then shall ye 
also appear with him in glory. This is the record, that God 
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." 

We observe, thirdly, in order to prove that Christ procured a 
spotless title to heaven for his people, and puts them in posses- 
sion of it, that this appears from all those passages of holy writ 



162 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



which declare that Christ is already in possession of heaven in 
their name. When one receives possession from the proprietor 
and disposer of an important situation, as a forerunner and 
representative head, it is granled, by him who bestows the 
exalted blessing, that all the representees have a right to enter, 
in their contemplated order, upon the enjoyment of it. This 
truth as naturally and necessarily evolves from the notion of 
representation, as heat does from the glowing furnace. 

But many passages of scripture declare that Christ is enter- 
ed into heaven in the capacity of our representative head, and 
that this is only in consequence of his having obtained a title 
to the distinguished eminence, by the performance of that obe- 
dience which had been assigned to him upon earth. To be 
sure, Christ even as man, might have been, in a private capa- 
city, exalted to heaven, and immortal glory, as soon as ever the 
human nature was united to the divine. For this, the union 
of his humanity to divinity, and -its own spotless innocence, 
undoubtely laid a foundation. But he could not be elevated 
to it as the representative head of his people, till, by his death, 
he had sanctified all whom he represented, for entering, legally 
and virtually in him, and actually in due time, in their persons, 
into that pure and holy place, which exceeds all others and is 
less so only than its maker . The high priest of the Jews could 
not enter into the holy of holies, until he had sanctified himself 
and all the people whom he represented, by the efficacy of sacri 
ficial atonement; and no more could Christ, as the representa- 
tive head of his people, enter info heaven, till he had prepared 
his way, and obtained a title to it, both for himself in this capa- 
city, and all those who were represented by him. We do not 
say, that Christ purchased heaven for himself, considered merely 
as God and man in one person; in the sense we have just now 
said, that even his human nature had a right to it, as soon as 
united to the divine; but, we say, that it was only in this way, 
that the Mediator, possessing all prerequisite reasons in the 
dignity of his person, could be exalted unto it, in the capacity 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



163 



of representation which he bears . Hence Christ is said to be 
sanctified with his own blood. And hence the scriptures 
which speak of Christ only in this relation of our representa- 
tive head as seated at the right hand of God the Father, al- 
ways connect together as reason and consequence, the humil* 
iation and sufferings of Christ upon earth, and his exaltation 
and glorification at the Father's right hand in heaven. Were 
it necessary we could quote many passages pertinent to this 
purpose. Let the following instances suffice. " The God of 
our fathers hath raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged 
upon a tree; him hath God exalted with his own right hand 
to be a Prince and Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel 
and forgiveness of sins. Acts 5:30,31. But we see Jesus 
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering 
of death crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace 
of God, should taste death for every man : For it became him 
for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bring- 
ing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation 
perfect through sufferings. Heb. 2:9,10. Looking unto 
Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith, who for the 
joy that was set before him endured his cross, despising the 
shame of it, and is now set down on the right hand of the 
throne of God. Heb. 12: 2. And being found in the fashion 
of a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, 
even the death of the cross j wherefore, God hath highly ex- 
alted him, and given him a name which is above every name. 
Phil. 2: 8,9. These passages put it beyond a doubt, that, to 
allude to his own words, it behooved Christ to suffer, and 
then, as a consequence of his sufferings, to enter into his 
glory. 

Is more proof, however, of his entering into heaven, as our 
representative head, demanded ? The whole language of 
scripture, and the whole connexion of the system of divine 
truth, proclaim, that when Christ did enter into beaveji 



164 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



through the merits of his sufferings, it was in the capacity of 
Otir rep'resentative. What is the meaning of Paul's reasoning 
in the epistle to the Romans, where it is shown that we are 
planted together with Christ in the likeness of his death, and 
raised together with him in the likeness of his resurrection, 
that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ? 
what is the meaning of his reasoning in the fifteenth chapter 
of his first epistle to the Corinthians, where it is demonstrated 
that " Christ is risen, the first fruits of the resurrection from 
the dead, and that if we rise not," so close is the connexion, 
"neither is Christ risen?" what is the meaning of his rea. 
soning in his epistle to the Colossians, where it is shown, that 
we are buried with him in baptism, and risen with him unto 
newness of life ? what is the meaning of all that reasoning 
in this epistle to the Hebrews, where, in language that almost 
defies a misinterpretation, he is said, not only to be our fore- 
runner, but to be our forerunner entered into heaven for us? 
in a word, what is the meaning of almost all the scriptures, if 
Christ has not entered into heaven, and this, purely in his 
own right, as the representative head of his people? The 
scriptures are addressed to the common reason of mankind, 
and intend not, on the most important of all subjects, to be- 
guile; and the following particular passages sum up the 
scriptural doctrine upon this interesting topic; "He is the 
head of the body the church, who is the beginning, the first 
born from the dead, that in all things he might have the pre- 
eminence." In whom we have obtained an inheritance, being 
predestinated, according to the purpose of him, who worketh 
all things according to the council of his will. Blessed be 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according 
to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead • to an inheri- 
tance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, 
reserved in heaven for you. If children, then heirs, heirs of 
God, and joint heirs with Christ." 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 165 

But, in a word, 1 observe, that it appears that Christ purcha- 
sed heaven for his people, and that they come to the possession 
of it only by him, because his spirit is expressly said to seal 
them as the spirit of promise, Eph. 1: 13. From what the 
metaphor of sealing is here borrowed, appears, notwithstanding 
the views of some eminent interpreters, capable of being ascer- 
tained to a moral certainty. This epistle is obviously greatly 
indebted for its particular language, to the Old Testament dis- 
pensation; and above all, is it indebted to it, in the immediate 
context. There was a promise made to Abraham that the 
land in which he sojourned should be given as an inheritance 
to his seed; and of the certainty that this promise would be 
fulfilled circumcision was given as a seal. Had any question- 
ed the truth that the children of Israel, at the end of the four 
hundred years mentioned to Abraham, would be redeemed 
from that country into which their great progenitor foresaw 
they were to descend and where they would be afflicted, the 
Israelite had only to call to remembrance the mark of the flesh 
of his foreskin, in order to return an answer, from the covenant 
of God, ratified in the vivid evidence of blood, to show the 
impossibility of his not enjoying his promised inheritance. In 
the same manner, a covenant in which heaven is promised is 
supposed made, in the moments of the christian's union by 
faith to Christ, between him and that God who proclaims by 
his oath, in the offer of the gospel, that whosoever believes 
shall be saved ; and this passage shows, that, in the economy 
of grace, the spirit is dispensed from God, by Christ, to an- 
swer, with respect to the christian, in relation to the heavenly 
inheritance, the same end, that circumcision did to the Israel- 
ites, in their bondage and expectation in Egypt. The sons of 
Abraham, if God be faithful, must be redeemed by power, and 
actually set on their heavenly places of divine promise; and the 
spiritual seed of a greater one than Abraham, and whose sign 
ef sanctification is in his own blood, must come to their heavenly 
Canaan. Hence the spirit here as a seal, is called the spkk 
15 



166 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



of promise; and hence his relation to us by Christ is thus ex» 
hibited, in varied but exegetical language, in the subsequent 
verse. " Who is the earnest of our inheritance until the re- 
demption of the purchased possession." Hence the water from 
Christ, by this Spirit, is living water springing up to everlast- 
ing life. How happy, oh ! christian, that he who hath begun a 
good work in us, will carry it on until the day of Jesus 
Christ. 

Thus, it is unquestionably the doctrine of revelation, that 
Christ who could not but magnify the law of our nature, in 
both precept and penalty ; Christ who was voluntarily active in 
yielding obedience wherever the law demanded it, and ready 
to submit to the degree of punishment which justice could in- 
flict, hath, in obeying the law unto death, the original law of 
our nature, not only redeemed us from the fetters of guilt, but 
hath also infallibly secured our title to heaven : and hence the 
relations of faith must now appear in their true colors. — Faith 
is not connected in a meritorious co-operation with the obedi- 
ence of Christ in procuring heaven; but it is an exercise neces- 
sarily enjoined by the preceptive will of God in the dispensa- 
tion of the gospel ; and its actual manifestation in a reliance 
on the divine testimony is the mysterious ligament which, 
though Christ be in heaven and we upon earth, God himself 
uses to unite the members to their own head. 

But if this be the case, faith must grow up amongst the other 
precious productions in the garden of our intellectual sanctifi- 
cation, and this internal sa notification must all flow from 
Christ as our representative. The body would have a contin- 
gent member engrafted upon it in any other view; a hand, for 
instance, living and operating whose movements originate not in 
the unity of personal existence, but which is connected with it 
in respect to origin and vegetative life, like the mistletoe with 
the oak. But faith has the same source with every other grace, 
and issues from that cistern which represents all the streams of 
life, fills them with their copious abundance, and which through 



SANCTIFICATION TO £lFfe. iD/ 

them sends forth that refreshment which keeps green ariS 
flourishing the fields of new obedience. By gra«ce ye are saved 
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. 

But this brings us to the last. of the three things that we 
were to demonstrate respecting the sanctification of his people 
by the blood of Christ, namely, that he separates or sanctifies 
the principles of their nature in wardly from all pollution and 
contamination; and this we continue to illustrate in the pre- 
sent discourse, as forming a component part of our present 
subject. Here, my brethren, let me premise that the excel- 
lence of the mediatorial character of Christ, his being God, as 
well as man, was a thing absolutely requisite to give dignity 
and worth to all his actions; but it is not a consideration that 
formally makes any part of that sanctification which purifies us 
for heaven. The excellence which entitles him to adoration 
and worship, and by which he perform^d^what the most exalt- 
ed creature could not achieve, all resides in his divinity; and 
the spotless holiness of his humanity, all terminates in the 
suitableness of the constitution of his mediatorial person. 
The righteousness which is imputed to us for our justification, 
and the holiness which is communicated to us for our internal 
purification, were either wrought out by the energies of this 
glorious personage, or communicated to him from the original 
fountain of our free salvation; and they are not his natural or 
essential holiness or righteousness , either as he is God or man. 
This internal holiness of ours, after which we are inquiring, 
must, indeed, manifest itself in the person of Christ, as he 
stands our representative ; and the estimate that infinite holU 
ness makes of it in him, in the business of imputing his righ- 
teousness to us for our justification, must, in equity, be corres- 
pondent to that internal defilement of ours, which, by commu- 
nication from Christ, it is intended that this holiness shall 
dispel. But this holiness is not the holiness of the person of 
the Mediator; it is the qualification of his office; for it must all- 
be transferred to the happy representees, when they enter into 



16« 



8ANCTIF1CATI07J TO UFE.i 



that pure and holy place, into which nothing that is unclean 
in its properties can enter. In heaven the joint heirs with 
Jesus Christ will not have a relative perfection of nature in 
their head; they will be the spirits of just men made perfect; 
the water of life will fill them to the brim ; each one will w alk, 
in his uprightness; the new creature of grace shall be the per- 
fect man of glory: and yet Christ, even when he has finished 
this mystery of grace, and has delivered up the kingdom to his 
Father, and God is all in all, will retain the perfection of his 
divine and human natures. The simple apprehension of the 
Son of God's assuming human nature is, on all hands, allowed 
not to be a formal parrof his humiliation, but a prerequisite to 
both states of his mediation ; and the constitution of his per- 
son, in the perfection of both natures respectively, is only a 
personal prerequisite to the accomplishment of our salvation, 
in both its branches of justification and sanctification. 

By the holiness of our nature manifesting itself in Christ, 
as just mentioned, it is not meant, though it be not the essen- 
tial holiness of either nature in him, that it is the same as 
holiness of obedience, or the effects of volition. This is the 
anointing of the Mediator which we consider as the cistern in 
him, from which our holiness flows. The high priest under 
the law was consecrated not by blood only, but also by the oil 
of anointing. The one signified his legal separation, and right 
of actual ministration ; and the other was a sign of a concomi- 
tant qualification, fitting him for the discharge of his duty; 
and so Christ is anointed with the graces of our inward 
holiness. 

Some divines would appear to think that Christ was anointed 
merely to answer to the type in the Levitical priesthood. 
Nothing, however, can argue less reflection, less acquaintance 
with the language of scripture, less knowledge of the attributes 
of justice, or less extensive views of the harmony of type and 
antitype, than this method of stating the subject. Christ's 
relation to his people required that he should be sanctified in 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



•reality; and as every shadow under the patriarchal and Mosai- 
cal economies arose into being, to reflect and give some idea Of 
the great subtance from which they sprung ; so Christ must be 
considered as the original character, for the sake of whom they 
were invested with whatever they did display. The priesthood 
of old was anointed to prefigure Christ's anointing; but Christ 
nimself was anointed, because the eternal relations of justice, 
in the station which he occupied, required it. Standing out 
great high priest while the sacrifice of himself received infinite 
value from the altar of his divinity which sustained it, Christ, 
anointed with all grace, the grace of the internal purification of 
his people, showed to the eye of eternal justice, that the salva- 
tion which he achieved surveyed all moral relations of sinfuj 
man, and provided his recovery with honor to these relations, 
The penalty of the law he repaired, and the precept of it he 
magnified,; — but every being which has properties to be esti- 
mated, has a substance in which they inhere, — every intellec- 
tual existence has a moral being previous to his actings,— a 
being which may be affected by natural deformities, and which, 
if tainted with corruption, must be healed, not by obe- 
dience nor suffering, but by a communication of principles, 
that will insinuate themselves into our moral existence and 
renew its nature. Hence, when Christ offered himself to 
divine justice, it was not the sacrifice of himself simply, infi- 
nitely valuable as it was, that he presented, but this sacrifice 
through the eternal spirit ; and thus he offered himself, not only 
a sacrifice of a sweet smell unto God, but this same sacrifice 
purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God„ 
When the spirit descended, at his baptism, on our great high 
priest, the visible form which he assumed was a sign of that 
anointing above measure, which at that moment was supposed 
diffused on the Mediator to qualify him for his office. What 3 
indeed, was the essence of this anointing, whether a substance 
or a modification that, in moral reckoning, answered to real 
existence in the natural world, is a subject equally myateriotis 



SANCTIFICATION TO LITE. 



in whatever way we consider it j but notwithstanding, we lose 
sight of absolute justice as the meridian line of our reasoning, 
if we do not include the fact of Christ's unction to the moral 
amount we have stated, among the elements of our moral rep- 
resentative perfection. In the eye of strict law Christ has in 
his Mediatorial person a holiness which is ours in him, of which 
he is only the depository for a time, and which from him to us 
must be communicated. Hence he is said to have been 
anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure, and hence it is 
said that out of his fulness we receive and grace for grace. 

This holiness in Christ it is not necessary to consider, as a 
suffusion at the moment of his baptism only: — his baptism was 
hi visible inauguration into office; and yet in one respect he 
always acted as our Mediator; but, as this transaction was 
viewed as a formal declaration of his official character to angels 
and men, so, though the graces of the spirit always in some 
respects resided in him, yet, this was the moment that, as it 
were, summed them all up, and brought them to a perceptible 
and visible character; and which, setting aside all shadows, 
presented to man his Mediator, the Christ. 

By this anointing of our Saviour,] however, he was not com- 
pletely qualified to do the distinctive office of a great high- 
priest; or rather, as all the rest of the priesthood who could all 
slay sacrifices of every kind, derived their office by filiation from 
the Jewish high priest, in whom the whole family of priesthood 
had the fountain of their rights and privileges, but could not 
enter into the holy of holies; — so Christ is not fully consecra* 
ted to discharge all the parts of his office by this anointing 
alone. As he bears before the eye of the eternal into the 
highest heavens, the names of his people, he must conjoin with 
this holy oil of the spirit's unction, the blood of his eternal 
separation unto God. We know that Christ from his first ap- 
appearance on the stage of our earth, and even in all his an- 
cient seers and prophets, acted in virtue of his right to exercise 
mercy and power, as this right was acquired by his own death : 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



Ml 



* — but these were only anticipations in acting, on a foundation 
that, in truth, was always sure, but which, in fact, was laid only 
when he was sanctified by dedication, and his people by re- 
demption, through his own blood. 

The character of Christ's priesthood is, in our day, so dress- 
ed up in the lan'guage of a technical phraseology, that it is diffi- 
cult to penetrate to a just view of its scriptural simplicity, and 
particularly as explained in this epistle. In the second chap- 
ter of this epistle, Christ is called the captain of our salvation 
made perfect through sufferings ; and this is an intended view 
of him subservient to that contrast with Melchisedec and Aaron, 
which the apostle comes so soon to draw. In the machinery of 
thought which starts from this point, which is contemplated 
within the circle of the apostle's views at it, and which diver- 
ges into those lines of illustration, which are so suitable to the 
people to whom he is writing, it is difficult, without the most 
strict attention to the fundamental principles on which he 
rests the whole weight of his reasoning, to advance with him to 
the eminent conclusions in which he rests . 

Some professing christians have said that Christ is not to be 
considered as acting in the character of a priest, or as offering 
a sacrifice, till after his ascension he appeared in heaven, where 
he pleads from the wounds of his flesh, not as the strokes of a 
victim, but as the affecting signs which may command the 
compassion of Deity; as the pains and tears of a child com- 
mand the sympathy of his father. But it is clear, that the apos- 
tle in this epistle, distinguishes between priesthood and sacri- 
fice; he states distinctly two priesthoods; but while both of 
these must offer both gifts and sacrifices, what, it may be aske(^ 
in the language of estimation, was the value of these sacrifices 3^ 
Are we to view them as in form a variety, or a unity included 
under the same character? We speak of expiatory sacrifices 
only; for we have already remarked, that the burnt offerings t)f 
the Levitical priesthood were a transcript from the sin-offerings 
on the great day of atonement, and that all the other offerings 



172 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



were transcripts from these ; — hence as the sin-offerings were 
only a remembrance of the passover, which, though offered by 
many hands, yet must, in relation to Israel as a body politic, 
be considered in denomination only one sacrifice, it is obvious, 
that the value of all the Levitical oblations was unity. But 
from this unity Aaron derived his investiture of priesthood, and 
all the variety of offerings whose blood was shed at his conse- 
cration, and afterwards in his office, were in value simple as 
this original seed, that thus in its growth spread into so many 
opening branches. The end for which Aaron was consecra- 
ted to minister in the priest's office, and for which he filiated 
the right of priesthood to his sons that assisted him, was no- 
thing more than to carry on by the emblems of sacrifices, an 
instructive course of religious services among a people already 
redeemed ; — redeemed, however, only ceremonially and to a 
typical inheritance; and who consequently are still to be 
taught by the most impressive symbols which may remind them 
of their twofold relation in which they stand to God — ceremo- 
nially redeemed, and yet morally sinful. Thus the Aaronical 
priesthood offered daily, without, in their own view, as, at least, 
from the nature of their ordinances, they ought to have consid- 
ered the subject, making the comers thereunto perfect. 

But the whole services of the Jewish economy, and even the 
original sacrifice of the passover, were founded in it, and in- 
cluded in the blood of the covenant of circumcision ; and to un- 
derstand fully the apostle's doctrine respecting priesthood in 
this- epistle, we must trace the typical blood of sacrifice up to 
the period of the life of him, in whose loins, Levi, as the father 
of the Aaronical priesthood, did homage to a greater and more 
venerable priest than ever were any of his sons. At the time 
when the great circle of circumcision, which distinguished the 
Jew from the Gentile, was described, lived Melchisedec, Mel- 
chisedec whose very office as priest of the most high God, sup- 
posed that he had offered an expiatory sacrifice : — and taking 
his standing into our calculations, we have two priesthoods, 



SANCTlFlCATlOr? *0 IIFB, 



173 



inclosing the same general line of typical oblation.— Hence 
though Aaron's character of office supposed as he exercised k, 
that the sacrificial blood which was the foundation of his right 
to officiate was already offered, and to the eye of heaven spread 
abroad in the passover ; and consequently that he could resemble 
Christ as a priest, as he would be supposed clothed in heaven, 
with the office of priesthood, after his blood, which gave him a 
right to it, was shed, in the Egypt of our world; yet the apos- 
tle, in his beautiful compound reasoning, will not fall into the 
solecism of calling Christ's death a sacrifice, without a priest to 
make the offering. On the other hand, Christ's sacrifice is 
viewed, all the time that it is contrasted with Aaron's sacrifices, 
as appended to its true priesthood — that after the order of Mel- 
chisedec ; and hence though this was in the heaven of the Jewish 
economy, in the place where the holy law and original mercy 
of God reposed in arms of reconciliation, it was yet in the 
world of our accursed nature. Christ, then, was a priest upon 
earth, a priest by the oath of God, and offered up the one of- 
fering of himself, perfect as was this oath by which he was 
constituted ; and hence he is said to have now entered into the 
true heavens, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 

But Aaron's economy is intended in this epistle, to give us 
particular information especially in two points. As he is the 
representative head of the people in the heaven of their pron> 
ised land, he presents a sacrifice for them ; and among their 
family, as a holy people, and the sons of God, born of blood 
and water in Egypt and at the Red Sea, he himself is compre- 
hended . He ventures, too, to go with blood beyond the borders 
of their peculiar land j into the mystery which contains secrets 
that whisper into his ear, that the Israelites, by faith, should 
leave their present transitory inheritance, should go beyond 
the borders of their present abode, and should seek another 
that is yet to come. Yes, Aaron under a cloud of incense en- 
tered with the blood of atonement into the holiest of all; 
at his hand it was there ceremonially accepted, but morally re* 



174 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



jected; and the sin of the sons of Jacob was sent away to dwell 
in the wilderness of our earth, till a more hopeful sacrifice 
should bear it into the regions of death ; — and Christ who did 
offer the sacrifice of himself in the kingdom of our corrupted 
nature must carry from the scene of his death, in the outer 
court of our world, his blood to sprinkle and consecrate the 
mercy seat that is eternally within the veil. Hence, it is said, 
that " he is able to save to the uttermost, all them that come 
unto God by him, seeing he ever Hveth to make intercession 
for them.'" 

But, my brethren, what is this intercession of Christ? It is 
not his literal blood that Christ exhibits in heaven ; it is the 
value of his death ; — but it is not simply this as it is estimated 
and accepted of by God; — it is this as heaven has been given to 
Christ as our forerunner, who hath merited it for us, — and as 
God, in all the perfection of his nature, is supposed promising 
to Christ the possession of heaven indubitably to all his repre- 
sentees. 

If, however, this be a just representation which describes his 
intercession by the strict legal relations of his character as our 
forerunner, then it will follow, that Christ, who dispelled all 
shadows, those under the law, and those in that great line up 
to Melchisedec and the first promise from which they sprung 
as branches from the same stem, — and who was alone morally 
the priest of sinful man, — must, in the very act of dying, have 
consecrated himself, with his own blood, to an everlasting 
priesthood, and obtained for the whole body, head and mem- 
bers, the possession of heaven . This was undoubtedly the 
case. As every priest according to the scriptural nomenclature 
must be dedicated by blood, it appears, that in his own death, 
Christ actually became a priest ; and though he acted in his 
priestly character, and was the lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world, this was only symbolically and by anticipation. — 
The death of Christ is the luminous point from which diverge 
all the rays of glory to himself as our Mediator, and of felicity 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



175 



of heart or dignity of character to his followers. From this 
point he started to his glory as head of Zion, and head over all 
things, animate and inanimate, angels and archangels, for her 
welfare ; from this fountain he sent forth all his seers and pro- 
phets, and spake himself the will of God to sinful men : and 
from this sun before it did itself arise to view, he sent all those 
reflected rays of the morning of priesthood that crimsoned 
our world with a garment as dyed in the wine fat. 

Some have said that Christ was actually a priest from all 
eternity, and that he really acted in the peculiar robes of his 
office from the era of the visitation of mercy. But a funda- 
mental principle of the apostle is, that every high priest must 
be taken from amongst men j real human nature must be put 
on, before the formalities of the priestly office can be display- 
ed ; and hence though Christ in substance supported by anti- 
cipation his sacerdotal office, and revealed it to the world 
from the earliest notices of redemption ; yet it was only in the 
moment of his dying that he stood recognized by God, angels, 
and men, as our great high priest, sanctified by blood. Im- 
agine him then in all the relations of his acting in this mo- 
ment of offering up the one sacrifice of himself. To this mo- 
ment we carry forward his anointing ; and by his own blood, 
and the oil of the spirit, we see him now standing, under the 
hands of consecration to an everlasting priesthood — his blood 
flows, and the work is done,— his people are redeemed, heaven 
is eternally purchased, — from this chamber issue all the twi^ 
light rays before the day arises, — and when it does arise, every 
shadow flees away ; and the great temple of the Lord, com- 
prehending all that are in heaven, and that are in earth, stands 
resting upon this foundation of the oath of God, the death of 
his Son, the grace of the Spirit, — as all conspiring to perfect 
for us a priest and a sacrifice for evermore. 

But if this be a just view of the subject then all the lan- 
guage of this epistle concerning priesthood must be consider- 



176 



SANCTIFICATI03T TO LIFE. 



ed as descriptive, and intended only as a means of guiding the 
mind into logical principles, which might be stated in other 
language: and then Christ our representative being consecrated 
to be a priest for evermore by his own blood, will mean nothing 
else, than that he purchased heaven for himself in this charac- 
ter of representation, and for all that are represented by him. 
This accords delightfully with the contrast in which the lan- 
guage of this epistle stands to that of the rest of the writings 
of the New Testament; and, indeed, to the logical statement 
from which, in this epistle itself, the apostle sets off into the 
illustration by typical representations of his logical concep- 
tions. In the second chapter the apostle says that Christ is 
the captain of our salvation made perfect through suffering; 
and in almost every other place of the New Testament Christ 
is spoken of in plain terms, or in such as must be converted 
into the same import, — as dying and saving us by his death : 
— or which is the same thing, possessing heaven in our name 
on the footing of his perfect obedience to the law of our na- 
ture. — Had Christ had any defilement of his own he could 
not have purified others; hence in his obtainment of a station 
a eternal in the heavens,' 1 there could be no respect, in relation 
to himself, to a satisfaction ; but as his character espouses, as 
bone of its bone and flesh of its flesh his people, their redemp- 
tion on their part, in the language of priesthood, must answer 
to his consecration on his, as heaven is respectively and 
certainly in the contemplation of them both. For both he 
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, 
wherefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren. 

That this holiness which is the anointing of our great high 
priest, and which thus co-operates with the blood in his conse- 
cration; which was poured upon him at his baptism; but 
which we have carried forward to be contemplated in its efrU 
cacy at the moment of his death ; must have appeared in the 
representative character of the Mediator, is clear from th$ 



SAXCTIFICATIOX TO LIFE. 



177 



fact that he as our consecrated high priest has already entered 
into heaven as our forerunner for us. When, my brethren, it 
is said if any man sin -we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous, it is to be remembered, that this 
attribute of righteousness presents our advocate, as one who 
has the pledge of the success of his advocation in the station 
which he occupies ; who must be hurled from his glorious and 
well merited throne, before the cause of his people can be ulti- 
mately unsuccessful. All the relations of the Mediator in hea- 
ven recognize him as the vine planted by the throne of God, 
and which will shoot forth its branches, till it shall cover para- 
dise with the whole of the ever-living fruit of the tree of life. 

Every individual who is thus represented in heaven, it is 
known, is by nature depraved and the inward beauty of his 
nature defaced by sin. The image of God consisting in the 
moral rectitude of our nature, the adequacy of our know- 
ledge to our situation amongst the works of God, and the in- 
variable direction of our desires and affections according to 
the dictates of the understanding, was lost on man's first dis- 
obedience to the divine law. Justice, however, rendered it 
impossible that Christ should enter into heaven as the repre- 
sentative head of his people, without displaying, in his Media- 
torial person, all the brightness of that image of God which 
was the constituent glory of our natures, and which we had 
entirely dissipated by our apostacy. The strict law of God 
necessarily excludes from the gates of bliss the admittance 
even representatively of sinfully imperfect creatures,' repre- 
sentation in law being the same as personal appearance. Is it 
said, that this is a great mystery, that Christ should have trea- 
sured up in his Mediatorial person, all the holiness that is to 
purify and sanctify his church throughout all ages? We 
grant it is. It is that inconceivable subject to human capacL 
ty of which the apostle Paul says, u this is a great mystery." 

We cannot comprehend the nature of it, any more than that 
16 



'178 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



of any other mystery, whose dark side only is revealed to us; 
but this much we must assert respecting it, that the contrary 
doctrine is opposite to pure law, and morally impossible in 
an all-perfect dispensation. 

But that Christ is really anointed with the graces of our 
sanctification, is evident from all those passages of scripture 
which, presuming it to be in him, present it6 streams as issu- 
ing from him and flowing into his members. If our union to 
Christ be described as that of nourishment from him, as the 
branches are nourished by the root ; if it be portrayed as that 
of vital connexion and direction, such as subsist s between the 
head and the body; if it be compared to a sustaining influ- 
ence, like that of the foundation to the building ; and if these 
representations do respect, even inclusively, our internal holi- 
ness, — then, does it not follow, clear as the eye of the morn- 
ing, that he both possesses our sanctification in his Mediato- 
riar person, and communicates it unto us? The root has first 
the vegetative juice which its laboratory prepares to invigorate 
the branches; the understanding has first the plan of opera- 
tions which the hands may put in execution; and the. founda- 
tion is first laid correspondent to every intended part of it, and 
then is reared the superstructure. — But does not John, the be- 
loved disciple, describe the union between Christ and his people 
at great length, and in language which principally has a respect 
unto a vital connexion, when he speaks of Christ as the vine 
and we the branches? Does not Paul teach us the same 
truth, when he says, that the whole body fitly joined together 
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according 
to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh 
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love ? Does 
not Peter paint his beloved master as the living foundation 
stone, disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and pre- 
cious; and one to which believers, coming as unto a living- 
stone, are built up a spiritual house ? We cannot receive liter- 



S A NOTIFICATION TO LIFE. 



a] descriptions of things purely spiritual; but could expressions 
be better contrived or similitudes be better selected, to con- 
vince us, that in the dispensation of grace, there is an internal 
sanctification, that we, who are morally decayed, receive; and 
that the lines of this sanctification are all to be traced into the 
person of our great representative head, the anointed high 
priest of his people? No! "In him dwells all the fulness of 
the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him." " The word 
was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld its glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace 
and truth; and out of his fulness we all receive and grace for 
-grace." 

In one word, it is undoubted, that Christ is anointed with the 
graces of the Spirit, and that his people receive an unction 
from this holy one, from those passages of scripture, which 
show to us the relations of the sanctifying influences of the 
Holy Ghost. This Spirit does reside in us as in his temple; 
he works in us both to will and to do; he distributes to every 
one grace, and gifts of free favor; — 'but he only takes of the 
things of Christ and shows them unto us. — When Christ as- 
cended into heaven the first fruits of the resurrection from the 
dead, every lineament of moral perfection, which the eye of 
heaven could approve as the qualification of the full harvest of 
his people, in every ear that shall grow, in any age or nation, 
tongue or kindred, till the end of time, appeared in him, or was 
on its wing in the hand of his Spirit to those saints that lived 
upon the radiations from his fulness, or shone in those spirits of 
just men made perfect that bow to him who is made higher 
than the heavens themselves. 

We have now, my brethren, advanced to a station whence we 
may take a retrospective view of the road we have travelled in 
these discourses, and see how appositely the most exhilarating 
reflections arise, from the disentangled course the path we have 
laid out pursues.. Looking to the prominence from winch we 



180 



SANCTIFICATIOS TO LIFE. 



started, we perceive, that there arise beyond it, the original state 
and fall of man. In the former of these Adam was created, 
with the perfect law of God impressed upon his nature, promis • 
ing endless happiness in case of obedience, and threatening 
endless misery and death in case of disobedience. Thus stood 
Adam as on our earth fresh from the hand of his Maker. Into 
paradise, a garden to be dressed, and the emblem of social abode, 
the man of the earth was by the kindness of his creator conveyed ; 
and all things were sovereignly put under his feet; neighbors 
such as the world could afford were marked out by God, a 
tree of knowledge of good and evil, and a tree of life ; and in 
this state of society, the law of his nature, which before was a 
covenant of life and death for himself only, now became, by 
God's appointment, a covenant for the family of mankind. So- 
ciety was organized not upon mere principles of nature, as the 
relation of Adam and Eve the parents of all living, but upon 
sovereign and representative relations; — a warning voice.open- 
ed to its lord from different quarters of that world whose wel- 
fare he represented, and to dress his tenantry in which was his 
positively appointed employment. 

The trees of the garden are in a little hid from our view by 
the brandishing of a sword of fire turning every way to guard 
the tree of life. Adam is driven from paradise; the gold of 
his creation is dim, the most fine gold is changed. But though 
he be driven into his native earth, and sees its briers and 
thorns springing up from his fatal change in paradise, is there 
no hope for him who was so lately the glory and head of the 
new born world ? 

Faint, yet genuine, is the color which streaks the horizon to 
show that the hopes of the human family may one day ripen 
into perfection by efficacious means of restoration. The robe of 
mercy mantles our first parents, and it is put upon them by 
the hand of a kinsman's redeemer, whose flesh is supernatural 
seed from the woman, and whose power is divine to vanquish 



SANCTIFICATION TO LIFE. 181 

every foe. The hope of life by this Mediator arises, sometimes 
here and sometimes there, among the posterity of Adam, til], 
in the days of Abraham, he and his posterity are inclosed 
within the circle of the covenant of circumcision, and mankind 
become distinguished into circumcision in the flesh and un~ 
circumcision. The former are the adopted sons of God, 
and hie latter are without God and without hope in the workL 
In Egypt the respective states of the two people is brought 
to a perceptible bearing — light is on the one, and darkness 
on the other ; death reigns on the accursed, and life from the 
chambers of mercy alights upon the redeemed. Sprinkled 
with the blood of their covenant the sons of promise enter 
upon their holy land and enjoy a iioly habitation — till a better 
is provided for Israel by the Mediator of a better testament 
established upon better promises. At this period of time 
the genealogy of Jew and Gentile is lost in the object of 
the divine dispensations; and circumcision and unchcum- 
cision, barbarian and Scythian, are all one in Christ. — The 
Mediator, who has been collecting his followers from among 
a particular people, and the nations at large, and who now 
again collects them out of every kindred by public and ex- 
cernal means suitable to an indefinite and general call, 
has, as related to the eye of omniscience, the church invisi- 
ble, whom, in the office of his mediation he represents. t)f 
these the punishment he exhausts, the duty he fulfils, the 
purity he provides— and whilst they are called promiscuously 
with others, yet the mercy of God pardons their sins for 
Chrisfs sake, his grace gives them a title to the heavenly 
inheritance, and his spirit of grace imbues their hearts 
and natures, with the inward principles of holiness. — Jesus, 
holy, harmless, undefined, and separate from sinners, is 
their forerunner made higher than the heavens, and they 
are fast arriving, in their respective generations, without 
spot or wrinkle, at the immaculate glory of which their 

16* 



SAHCTIFICATIOIf TO LIFTS. 



head is in possession. — Oh ! that we could make our calling 
and our election sure — We are not our own we are bought 
with a price. — Blessed God, work in us both to will and 
to do of thy good pleasure; that when he who is the life 
of his people shall appear, we may also appear with him in 
glory. — Amen. 



DISCOURSE VIII 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD SINNETH NOT. 



I. John 5:18. We know that whosoever is born of God, 
sinneth not, 

The objects, my brethren, of religious knowledge are very 
various. The books of creation, providence, and revelation, 
afford, each of them, many striking and important lessons on 
which the thoughts of man considered as a religious being, 
may be employed to the greatest advantage. In creation the 
power, wisdom, and goodness of God exhibit themselves to the 
most inattentive in no less a clear than diversified a manner; 
and if any be more careful to search more narrowly into its 
various departments, the more bright and more numerous dis- 
plays of these attributes continually present themselves to his 
view. Providence also, while by its undoubtedly suitable and 
continued disposition of things towards their proper and lauda- 
ble ends it has a tendency to confirm and establish us in the 
belief and the better understanding of these same important 
objects of religious knowledge, has also a tendency to acquaint 
us, either in a less or a greater degree, with others no less mo- 
mentous and interesting. Some faint idea of our own weakness 
and depravity, of the patience and forbearance of God, and of 
his justice and mercy, may, by an attentive perusal, be perceiv- 
ed in the book of God's providence. 



184 



HE WHO IS BORN OP GOD 



Narrow, however, at best, as well as obscure and indistinct, 
would be our knowledge of divine things were it confined to 
these two sources. True, indeed, they contain much objective- 
ly considered ; but many of the truths lie at too great a dis- 
tance, or are too much concealed under the thick cover of 
seeming perplexity, for the weak and unimproved faculties of 
the greater part of mankind ever to acquaint themselves with 
them . Neither in fact, although they should, do they contain 
in themselves all that knowledge that is necessary to conduct 
us, in our presently depraved condition, to an approvable dis- 
charge of our duty. To accomplish this is the prerogative of 
supernatural revelation alone. They are the scriptures of 
truth which bring forth the hidden plans and purposes of God 
respecting the recovery of a sinner to his acceptable obedience. 
The book of nature might be read all over, creation's hidden 
treasures laid open, and the mysterious procedure and involv- 
ed connexions of providence unravelled and clearly explained ; 
and yet the least intelligence in this important affair never 
could be attained. It could never be said, we know, it is by 
being born of God. We know, saith our apostle, that whoso- 
ever is born of God, sinneth not. 

We see in this text, a person standing in a peculiar and dis- 
tinguished relation, one born of God: we see an endearing line 
of conduct which he leads, expressed negatively, he sinneth 
not : and we behold our apostle's confident declaration with 
respect to this attribute of this son of God, he knows it. Three 
important inquiries, therefore, occupy to-day our deliberations. 
— What is meant by being born of God? What is the import 
of the language, whosoever is born of God sinneth not? and 
what are the reasons which lead the christian to exclaim for 
himself and others, we know, that whosover is born of God sin- 
neth not. 

First, What is meant by being born of God? In divinity 
there is sometimes an advantage obtained from adopting the 
form of theory for the sake of perspicuity of arrangement; and 



SIJfNETH NOT. 



186 



believing that this method will conduce, in the present inquiry, 
to the most satisfactory result, we beg leave to present you 
with an answer, to this particular inquiry, in the form of a de- 
finition. By being born of God, it is presumed, is meant, that 
after his natural birth there is a real change produced by a di- 
vine operation in all the faculties of the soul of man, by the 
implantation into it of a spiritual and supernatural principle of 
life and action. It will not admit of a doubt that these ex- 
pressions of scripture, born of God, born of the spirit, born 
again, bprn of the spirit and water of life, do all imply some 
great change which passes upon a man after he is supposed in 
natural existence, and is exercising the natural powers of his 
mind. 

To procure assent to our definition as a proposition of divine- 
lv revealed truth, we are aware, that the inquisitive mind calls 
for some remarks explanatory of this spiritual and supernatu- 
ral principle of life and action, presumed to be implanted into 
the soul; and then for proofs of its implantation, 

We remark, in the first place, that this principle is, in its na- 
ture and manner of implantation into the mind, truly mysteri- 
ous. Here we know not the way of the spirit, nor how the bones 
do grow in the womb. This new birth, near as it is unto us, 
and apparently under our observation, is yet as the wind which 
beateth our outward frame and roareth in our ears, but is that 
of which we can give no account. The wind bloweth, saith 
our Saviour, where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound there- 
of, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it gceth, 
go is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

Not to acquiesce, however, in this, as well as in many other 
mysterious cases in nature, would be highly unreasonable. 
We know no more, perhaps, far less, how our minds, the nobler 
part of our constitution, actuate our gross bodies, than we do 
of this new birth. The true christian, though from its spiritual 
quality, and from the instantaneous direction of his thoughts to 
the objects which the change fits him to perceive, he be able to 



186 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



say little as to the precise nature of the change itself, can yet, 
both from his knowledge of the word of God and his own hap- 
py experience, say a good deal both of its gently but power- 
fully operating cause, and of its pleasant and comfortable ef- 
fects. — Which brings us to remark, 

Secondly, That this is a principle implanted into the mind 
by the agency of the divine Spirit. It is this great teacher who, 
not by constraint, but willingly, leads and conducts the chris- 
tian into the genuine knowledge of the truth, and makes him 
feel its real efficacy and power. True, indeed, we are said to 
be born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God. The word is the unerring rule by which, 
in all cases, the Spirit operates; and is with regard to adults 
what is termed the moral cause. It inculcates the necessity 
of regeneration; it points to the true efficient of it; and it ex- 
hibits the glorious privileges and advantages that are conse- 
quent upon it. It is, however, an instrument only of which 
the Spirit makes use. To the Spirit himself, in scripture, is 
attributed the real effectuating of the change. " According to 
his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost." " Who were born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God." 

But we remark, lastly, That this is a principle, which, be- 
ing implanted, restores the whole soul, in a certain degree, to 
that state of purity and holiness in which it was originally 
formed. In man's primeval state he was constituted in per- 
fect rectitude after the image of God. His understanding, his 
will, his affections, and indeed every power he possessed as a 
religious and moral being, were free from the least taint of cor- 
ruption or weakness, to disable him for acting his part in the 
sphere which was assigned to him. This was the happy state 
in which he knew perfectly the rule of his duty in every occur- 
rence of life, and delighted to comply with it. Now this spir- 
itual principle recovers him to this state; though not perfectly? 



SINNETH NOT. 



187 



but somehow as a child is to a full grown man. He sees, 
though his view be not a little indistinct, objects in their 
native colors. Whereas in his original state he knew, as 
far as concerned the nature of his situation, on every object 
which God had made, or relation which he had instituted, the 
impresses of divine authority; so now, in some degree, he re- 
cognizes the same dignified and interesting points of know- 
ledge. Whereas he then knew that the creation, animate and 
inanimate, and the law of obedience, proceeded from God ; so 
now he knows that the scriptures, which no less than the works 
of creation and providence, are enstamped with impressions of 
divine authority, spring from the same original. God hath 
shined, as the scripture saith, into his heart to give him the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Je- 
sus Christ, that his faith should not stand in the wisdom of 
men, but in the power of God. 

But it is not divine light alone of which, by being born 
again, this man is made a partaker. As in his original state 
he not only knew but delighted in his duty, so now he has not 
only his understanding enlightened to perceive it, but his will, 
and every active principle of his constitution, perverse and 
alienate from the life of God as they were before, are, in this 
day of God's power, altered and restored, in a great measure, 
to their primitive order and ability. His desires, his affec- 
tions, his sense of right and wrong, or conscience, are all 
purified ; and while the two former are put under a happy 
regulation, and directed to suitable objects, the latter is restored 
to ite rightful authority and dominion in the soul. The man 
is now no longer constrained to obey merely from the com- 
manding voice of the law without him : this is the day in which 
it is put into his heart. By the new birth he has an inward 
feeling of his obligation ; a knowledge how his duty is to be 
performed ; and a principle prompting him to the performance 
of that which is holy and upright. But we cannot sum up the 
state into which his mind is put by regeneration, so well as 



188 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



by saying, that, in truth and earnest, he is begun to realize the 
words of our Saviour: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, 
with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and 
thy neighbor as thyself.'" 

Having made these remarks on the principle itself, we come 
now to adduce the proofs that, in the new birth, this principle 
of life and action, whatever be its nature or manner of implanta- 
tion, is infused into the soul. 

There are many who allow of the necessity of an operation 
of the Spirit on the mind in order to accomplish regeneration, 
who, notwithstanding, deny that there is any real change 
which takes place intrinsically in the faculties of the mind 
itself. They say that to deny an operation of the Spirit on 
the mind, would be to obscure and tmstring all those clear and 
nervous passages of scripture, which we find so pointed, and 
so often repeated on this head. But at the same time that 
they allow this, they deny that it is of any other nature than 
what is extrinsical and moral in its effects : that is, the Spirit 
operating externally on it influences the mind to attend to 
the word, the rule by which the man is to be reformed, but he 
produces no change on the nature or in the quality of the soul 
itself. Indeed we willingly allow that there is no change 
produced in the essence of the mind, or in its necessary and 
physical modes of acting. These are still the same, and can- 
not be altered while human nature is human nature. But we 
assert that, considering the mind in a moral point of view, 
and with regard to the qualities of its actions, it is^as a prin- 
ciple from which these actions spring, greatly changed ; and 
this, by the implantation of the spiritual and supernatural prin- 
ciple we have mentioned. 

Our first proof is from the nature of the change itself. Here 
it will be necessary to glance a little at the state of man, as 
represented to us in scripture, previous to regeneration. Not 
to make much research, nor to adduce many passages, we have 
this clearly depicted in the two following apposite ones, from 



SINXETH NOT. 



189 



the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. In the beginning of the 
second chapter he says : " You who were dead in trespasses 
and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power of 
the air; the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobe- 
dience.'" Again, in his fourth chapter and eighteenth verse : 
« Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from 
the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because 
of the blindness of their hearts.'" Here the understanding, the 
will, and the conscience, not only the leading powers in the 
soul, but powers which either presuppose or comprehend in 
their exercise all the rest, are represented in indeed a very dis_ 
ordered and perverted condition. Is it said that it does not 
sufficiently appear from these passages that it is the mind itself 
that is enfeebled and morally corrupted; but that they only 
evince that they are the exercises of it which are disordered 
and perverted? We might, granting this, (what the words 
quoted will not allow us to do, without the most violent dis- 
tortion,) reply and urge wilh our Saviour, that - a tree is 
known by its fruit. But we shall turn the argument into 
another channel. 

At man's first appearance in the world he was unquestionably 
furnished with moral endowments far superior to what by 
nature he now possesses. He was then in the image of God. 
God created man, it is said, in his own image ; in the image of 
God created he him. It is not the soul as acting, nor the 
exercises of it, to which there is here a respect, and on account 
of which man is said to have been created after the image of 
God. It is the frame and constitution of the man previous to 
his acting. He is created in it. But though he was created 
in this state, mark what is his natural condition now. He is 
born as the wild ass's colt ; his frame is shapen in sin, and con- 
ceived in iniquity ; his heart, the moving principle to action^ is 
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Thus, it 

is clear, that previously to regeneration, not only the exercises 
17 



100 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



of the soul, but the soul itself is spiritually enervated and 
morally depraved. — The consequence to the establishment of 
a principle of grace implanted in regeneration into the soul is 
undeniable. Regeneration reverses the state of man, and 
whatever was deficient in the soul by sin, must be supplied by 
grace. 

Secondly : This truth is confirmed from all those passages 
of soripture which ascribe actions to the renewed man as really 
his actions, but which, in his natural state, he has no ability to 
perform. Here it may be laid down as an undoubted truth, 
that an action can never be ascribed to a person as his action, 
if he has no capacity in his nature suitable to the performance 
of that kind of action, but is carried forward to it merely by an 
external impulse. It is an absurdity to say that it is in any 
respect his ; the intent, matter, end, and consequences of it are 
ascribable to the external agent only who operates upon him. 
Indeed we willingly allow that we are dependent upon God 
every moment of our existence, and even for that particular 
disposition in which our minds are when about to act or when 
acting; but then we assert that we have within ourselves a fit- 
ness or capacity suitable to the performance of the actions 
which are termed ours, and on account of which they are so 
denominated. Now, the new man performs spiritual actions; 
he compareth spiritual things with spiritual ; he eateth spiritual 
meat, .and he drinketh spiritual drink ; he prayeth in the spirit, 
and he singeth spiritual songs. Previous to hte regeneration, 
however, he had not a fitness or capacity congruous to the per- 
formance of these actions. " The natural man receiveth not 
the things of the spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him 5 - 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discern- 
ed. ,r Here his inability is plainly declared, and the reason is 
assigned—spiritual things are spiritually discerned. There 
is, en the perception of spiritual objects, a new simple idea in 
tha ruled, which, in its unrenewed capacity, it could not re- 
ceived Thus, if we allow not of a spiritual principle of life and 



SINNETH NOT. 



m 



action implanted into the soul, capacitating it, or should it be 
better expressed, giving it a fitness of nature for the perform- 
ance of these spiritual actions, the inevitable consequence will 
be, that the actions which are ascribed to the renewed man are 
not at all ascribable to him, but to the Holy Spirit who operates 
upon him; a consequence which will overturn the very funda- 
mental principles of morality and man's accountability; and 
hence the true account of the inhabitation of the Spirit is as 
we have presented his operations. 

Other arguments might have been drawn from other general 
considerations, such as regeneration is termed a new birth 
and a new creation; but passing these, we shall only mention, 
and consider a little, three passages of scripture, which will 
admit of no other explication than what clearly and pointedly 
coincides with this opinion. 

" That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is bom 
of the Spirit is spirit." That the spirit here, which is said to be 
produced by the Holy Ghost, can be referred to nothing else 
than a supernatural principle of life and action, is clear from 
the carriage of the context, from the opposition in which it 
stands to the flesh, and from the character and circumstances 
of the speaker. If this language denotes not this principle, 
why did the Saviour lay such emphasis on these words? If 
by being born again were meant a reformation only of the 
exercises of the soul, could the teacher sent from heaven, 
and who was in heaven, find no more clear and perspicuous 
method of expressing himself to the laudably astonished and 
inquiring mind of Nicodemus, than by asserting that the change 
was spirit; a word always used to denote some real sub- 
stantive existence. In the preceding verse he had stated the 
absolute necessity of it to salvation; and by his solemn assevera- 
tion, he must have thrown the mind of the man into the greatest 
anxiety and solicitude; and are we to suppose, that notwith- 
standing this was a case in which doubts were the most easily 
resolved, and views the most easily rectified, that however 



192 



HE WHO IS BORH OF GOD 



Christ, in this very verse, the only one where he professes to 
explain himself, used language which, to Nicodemus, conveyed 
nothing but the contrary idea to a common reformation of life, 
and which, to all men, must convey the same? 

Again i The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit 
against the flesh ; and these are contrary the one to the other. 
That by the flesh are here meant inclinations to vice and wicked- 
ness, is obvious from the common acceptation of the word flesh 
in the New Testament; but especially from the description 
given df it in the immediate context. In the same soul, how- 
ever, in which are these inclinations, there are others of an 
opposite nature. The spirit lusteth against the flesh, as well 
as the flesh against the spirit. — It cannot be said that the 
lustings of the spirit here are the twinges and strokes of natural 
conscience, considered merely as a natural faculty of the 
mind, enlightened by the external word, to a perception of its 
duty. Though it be allowed that this faculty, after that the 
mind by the aid of revelation is led to understand, in a good de- 
gree, the distinction between right and wrong, often exerts 
itself in severe reproofs of the conduct of the natural man ; 
yet, it would be a fond interpretation indeed, to understand its 
exercise for what is here termed the lustings of the spirit. A 
person is said to lust when he indulges those principles of his 
nature which are incentives to action, and which show them- 
selves previous to the operation of conscience, and the proper 
or improper indulgence of which is the subject over which con- 
science exercises its authority. Hence the spirit here must be 
some principle in the soul, or some seat of the affections, 
which, from its very nature, exerteth itself as a new creature, 
against the lustings of the unsanctified part of the soul, which 
is here termed the flesh. 

But lastly: That by these ye might be made partakers of a 
divine nature. It cannot be asserted that this divine nature of 
which we partake is that of the Deity. This is incommunica- 
ble to any creature. If it be any thing inherent in us at all, 



SlNtfETH NOT. 



it can be only some divine and supernatural quality graciously 
and freely communicated to us. But that it is this is obvious. 
For, why should it be called a nature, a permanent and an 
abiding thing, if it were not some real inherent quality ? 
Nature denotes not any adventitious and extrinsical Con- 
nexions, but always the internal state and properties of any 
subject. It may be termed a divine nature, because it assimi- 
lates the christian, in some degree, in the correeteess of his 
understanding, the uprightness of his intentions, ana! the 
holiness of his desires, to God, whose nature is truly divine. 

The second general object of inquiry in our discourse was, 
what is meant by the language, (i Whosoever is born of God 
sinneth not?^ 

In what sense we are to understand the phrase, sinneth not, 
is a matter about which there has been some difference of 
opinion. Some have said that all that is intended by it is, 
that the persons who are here said to be born of God, cannot 
commit that sin unto death, which is the subject of 
which the apostle has oeen immediately speaking, and which 
is mentioned in the sixteenth verse. But since it is here used 
as a part of a general and an unlimited proposition, and since 
the same mode of language is used in a preceding part of the 
epistle, evidently from the connexion in a greater latitude of 
meaning, we think, that though it be past all doubt that this 
sin is not excluded, the phrase, however, must have a more 
extensive signification. On the other hand, it is obvious 
that it cannot be understood in an absolute and unrestrained 
sense; so that no one who is, as here said, born of God, can 
commit any sin. Scripture in innumerable instances, and the 
experience of the best of saints, in all ages, declare against 
this view of the subject. Job, a perfect and an upright man, 
one that feared God and eschewed evil, cursed, in impious 
ingratitude, the day in which he was born, and the night in 
which he a man child was conceived. He asked in earnest 
17* 



194 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



impious questions, why died 1 not from the womb? why did 
I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? David, 
a man after God's own heart, perpetrated iniquities, and 
often laments over them. "Mine iniquities have gone over 
mine head as a burden too heavy for me to bear." And Peter 
the most zealous apostle of our Lord, sinned, till he wept in 
repentance; for he had denied his Lord and master. "]f," 
says this apostle Jofclj W this very epistle, « any man say that 
Jlo il'iS no sin, this man deceiveth himself, and the truth is not 
in him.'" 

To answer this inquiry, therefore, we would remark the 
following things : 

First: That he who is born of God doth not sin, inasmuch 
as he has a settled disposition of mind to guard against every 
means that may have a tendency to urge him to the perpetra- 
tion of iniquity. In this respect, as is added in the following 
part of the verse, he keepeth himself. Satan's temptations, 
into however enticing and seemingly advantageous forms they 
may be thrown, are all detested by him. Conscious of the 
justness of the exhortation, resist the devil, he strives to 
oppose him, although he should appear as an infuriated 
lion, menacing to deprive him of every thing which men count 
valuable in this world, should it be even life itself ; or should 
he appear, not in this terrifying aspect, but in that more mild 
one, in which he often traverses the world, exhibiting vices 
under the semblance of present interest or advantage, or as a 
means to obtain some future apparently valuable end. With 
what is called the world, he is also no less unwilling to yield 
a compliance. Whatever may be its urgencies, or whatever 
arguments it may use to support and render current the evil 
customs, habits, and practices, which but too often and too pow- 
erfully prevail in it, his mind is continually set against them, 
and earnestly expresses itself to be kept far from the wicked. 
Gather not my soul with sinners, saith the Psalmist, nor my 



SINNETH NOT. 



195 



hands with bloody men. But they are not external enemies 
only that make assaults on the interests of the soul of man. 
The worst enemies whom he has to contend with are those of 
his own house. Even the person who is farthest advanced in 
sanctification, has a law in his members warring against the 
law of his mind, and about to bring him into captivity to the 
law of sin . Now to guard against the machinations of this 
restless and wicked foe within him, is what the true christian 
has an established resolution always to do. It is the language 
of which his heart approves, I would do good, though evil be 
present with me. 

But, secondly, He who is born of God does not sin, inas- 
much as he does not commit sin with deliberation and premed- 
itated device. The natural man is not only off his guard with 
respect to the ensnaring enemies of his soul ; but it is charac- 
teristic of him, that he often lays, with all the depth of his 
penetration, schemes by which he may accomplish some great 
wicked design. Should his pride, his vanity, his malice, his 
envy, his ambition, his revenge, or his avarice, create to him a 
desirable object, for the attainment of this, he is often seen to 
introduce into his system of practice, every species of iniquity ; 
no murder, no perjury, no profanity, no acts of impiety, appear 
too great for him to be guilty of. But he who is born of God 
cannot sin after this manner. He is one who keeps the ways 
of the Lord ; who does not so wickedly depart from his God ; 
his judgments are ever before him, and he puts not away his 
statutes from him. He may appear indeed at times to per* 
form ablameable action, which apparently has its origin in evil 
intention; but this is to be imputed rather to the imperfection 
of his state, or to his ignorance of his obligation in that particu- 
lar instance, than to any premeditated and settled design of do- 
ing evil. This is the case in which is exemplified in his char* 
acter, the truth of the saying, that he is one who fears the Lord, 
and obeys the voice of his servant, and who yet walks in dark- 



196 



HE WHO IS BORN OP GOD 



ness, and has no light. — When to will is present with him, but 
to perform that which is good he finds not. 

But, thirdly, He who is born of God cannot sin, inasmuch 
as he does not perpetrate evil actions with affection and love 
to them. The unrenewed man not only deliberates how he 
may accomplish a wicked action, but he even executes wicked 
designs with eagerness and delight. He works all unclean- 
ness with greediness. To slander and despise just and sacred 
authority both human and divine, to interrupt and mar the hap- 
piness of others, to bring into disrepute and render useless the 
best and most momentous concerns, civil and religious, are un 
dertakings in which he often embarks with the greatest alacri 
ty, and which by one step after another he pursues with increa - 
ing joy. But the renewed son of God has no such affectio 
towards evil deeds. On the Other hand, this kind of sin is 
the burden of his soul. He crieth when he feeleth this law in 
his members, these corrupt affections of the old man, warring 
against the law of his mind, and about to lead him into captivi- 
ty to the law of sin, Oh ! wretched man that I am, who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death! The idea of proceed- 
ing to a wicked action with delight shocks his frame. His 
bones quake under it, and the blood altereth its course in his 
veins. It is to him an oppressing and an overwhelwing burden ; 
it ends his peace, it stuns the man, it is upon him the weighty 
and insupportable body of death. Oh! wretched man, said 
Paul, that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this 
death! 

But, fourthly, He who is born of God does not sin, because 
he does not run on in a perpetual course of iniquity. The 
wicked not only deliberate about it, and enter eagerly on a 
wicked action ; but the imaginations of their thoughts are evil 
and that continually. That end which dignifies the actions of 
men, and that authority of an upright rule which stamps their 
worth upon them, are, in actions which often have a specious 



SINNETH NOT. 



197 



appearance, really neglected A man may be industrious from 
self-interest ; patriotic from ambition or natural feeling ; osten- 
sibly religious from habit or a desire to obtain a devout reputa- 
tion; a scholar may traverse the fields of science from mere 
curiosity; and a legislator may be just purely to fill the circles 
of society with encomiums upon his conduct. And, as it car> 
not be denied that men may often act thus, so we may aver, 
that conscience, were her dictates alone to be recorded, would 
represent all the world that lieth in wickedness, by those spe- 
cious but unapproved lineaments of character. Day and night 
their thoughts weave schemes over which the genius of inter- 
est, curiosity, ambition, or instinctive patriotism, presides. 
Not a dictate of conscience is revered purely for its majesty, 
nor is a glance of the great end of human actions, the glory of 
the Creator, permitted to rule and govern them. They are all 
gone out of the way; they are altogether unprofitable, there is 
none that doeth good, no not one. 

Than this conduct, however, the christian maintaineth, m 
regard to the rule and end of his actions, a line of life much 
more amiable. He is one who can say, though not in an abso> 
lute sense, I was upright before him, and I kept myself from 
mine iniquity. Yes, this man about whom there is much sin- 
ful imperfection, strives to rise above his infirmities by all the 
operations of sincerity; by the spur which every failure gives 
to his conscience; by redoubling his resolutions; and by press- 
ing forwards toward the mark of perfection. " I count not 
myself to have apprehended , but this one thing I do ; forget- 
ting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
things that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 1 " — I cannot but weep 
here over some on whom a trembling observation has been 
suspended, and for whom agitations have increased. Have the 
motives, my brethren, of the unsanctified, the thousands of earthly 
and carnal conceptions which sit brooding on their minds and 
generating the labyrinth of their schemes, and which send 



198 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



forth in life and vigor so many renewals of them, been the par* 
ent of your morality and religion? Ah! what a corrupted 
heart under a profession so honorable! — Wo unto you hypo- 
crites, for you are like to whited sepulchres which appear beau- 
tiful outwards; but within are full of dead men's bones and of 
all uncleanness. — This is the doom of the wicked; but happy is 
the righteous j for I remark, 

Lastly, That he who is born of God does not sin, inasmuch 
as he does not commit that sin which, in the tenth verse, is 
said to be unto death. By this sin is meant either the sin of 
total apostacy or the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost; 
of which our Lord speaks, Mark 3:29. Whichever of these it 
be; or should it be both; for it seems somewhat difficult to de- 
termine, whether a person can make a profession of the gospel 
for some time and then finally apostatise, and not be chargeable 
with blasphemy against the divine Spirit; and certain it is, 
that there cannot be this blasphemy, without at the same time 
final apostacy; we say, whatever he the nature of this sin we do 
not determine. Suffice it to say, that it is certain, that it is a 
sin for which there is no forgiveness: and that as our text 
says, he who is born of God cannot be guilty of it. — Which 
brings us to our last inquiry, 

Which was, lastly, What are the reasons from which he 
who is born of God exclaims for himself and others, we know, 
that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not. Various are the 
considerations from which we might show you the christian 
adopting this language with respect to the sin unto death, so 
awful in itself, "and so prominently included in our text: but 
we look for arguments and demonstrations which will not only 
secure against this final catastrophe ; but which will inspire us 
to adopt this language in regard to the other sins, which we 
have asserted the saint has, in these words, before his eye. 
Desirous to maintain as far as possible the same line of 
thought unbroken before your view, we recur to the spiritual 
and supernatural principle of life implanted into the soul ; to a 



SINNETH NOT. 



199 



review and amplification of its relations; to the sure influences 
which water it; and to the parental care of him who is the 
head of these influences. 

We remark, in the first place, That this principle of life and 
action, proved to be implanted into the soul in regeneration, 
ever abides in it, and is never eradicated from it. True indeed, 
the fruits and effects of it, the exercises of the habit of faith, 
love, and every other grace of the christian, may fade, and fail of 
giving either examples to others, or comfort and assurance to 
the person himself. The phrase " sinneth not," does not plead 
absolute exemption from iniquity. But though this be the 
case, the habit of grace in the heart does not lose its seat, nor 
the seed of life the germinating quality of sending forth a 
beautiful and fruitful produce. The artificer, when he lies 
down to rest, loses not the knowledge of his art, nor the capa- 
city of putting it in execution. Neither does the seed, though 
during the cold and inclemency of winter it lie dormant, and 
discover no inclination to break the clod, fail, when the genial 
season and warming influences of the sun return, to send forth 
that verdant and flourishing vegetation which, in the spring, 
adorns the face of the earth. The same is the case with the 
christian. Though he may be so fatigued and overcome, not 
indeed with the delightful task of making christian attainments, 
but with the wrestling and war, which, with innumerable ene- 
mies, he has to maintain, as to desist from his laudable employ, 
and to lay himself down for a time to take a culpable and an ill- 
timed rest; though he may be in the winter of desertion; 
though that enlivening influence which sent forth in its vigor 
the growth of the seed of life which is in his mind, may have 
withdrawn itself, yet the habits and principles of the man are 
not lost : on the other hand, when the day alters, and the time 
of the Lord's visitation draweth nigh, the seed which seemed 
to be dead is quickened, and the man who had resigned him- 
self to a forbidden rest is restored to his former glorious exer- 
cise. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body 



200 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for 
thy dew is as the dew of herbs ; and the earth shall cast out 
her dead. Is more proof of this important point asked? Are 
not the gifts and callings of God without repentance ? Is it not 
said, the truth dwelleth in us, and shall be in us? And that 
whosoever is born of God cannot commit sin, for his seed re- 
maineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God? 

But we observe, secondly, that this gracious principle of life 
and action which is implanted into the soul in regeneration, 
and which always abides in it, gives to the mind of the chris- 
tian such a peculiar turn and disposition, as fully justifies, 
respecting him, the assertion made in our text. His under- 
standing is truly and correctly enlightened to a considerable 
degree, in those momentous matters which present themselves 
as injunctions or motives to universal obedience; and in those 
instructive points that are to direct him both positively how to 
maintain his duty, and also how to avoid the implicated and 
ensnaring cases of human life. He is sensible of the authority 
of God, and knows the obligations to gratitude ; he sees, by the 
penetrating eye of his faith, in their own aspects, the future 
endearing objects that are to meet obedience; and he remem- 
bers the awful nature and threatened consequences of vice. 
He knows, too, the promises of God, and how richly they are 
provided with every thing suitable to his exigencies; he is 
acquainted with the ordinances and institutions of his worship, 
and he cannot be forgetful of the need of circumspection to 
escape the entanglements of a circumventing world. 

Having thus his understanding properly enlightened, is it 
possible that he can forego this genuine knowledge of his, and 
deliberately persevere in a line of conduct which his own mind 
reprobates? Can he, for instance, notwithstanding the proper 
impressions he has received, deny and contemn the authority 
of God ; reject from his view the most inviting, delightful, and 
invaluable objects ; or live careless of the known and direful 
consequences of iniquity? — But why do we insist upon his 



NOT. 



201 



knowledge? The active principles of his mind are ho less 
renewed than is his understanding. His affections sweetly 
and powerfully incline him, as a dutiful son, to receive and 
obey the equitable commands of his righteous Father ; his de- 
sires prompt him to the pursuit of the glorious objects which 
his faith discovers; and, as an encouragement to him, his con- 
science intimates to him the present pleasures of godliness. 
The saint is of the same turn of mind with his Saviour, and 
desires to adopt the words, which, as uttered in prophetic vision, 
he used : u 1 delight to do thy will, O my God ; thy law is 
within my heart." 

Thus, though because his knowledge is not absolutely per- 
fect, he may take some unwary and forbidden steps, or because 
he has a law in his members warring against the law 7 of his mind, 
he may at times yield to the importunities of the former, when 
he should be going along with the dictates of the latter, he is 
not, however, without grieving for his indiscreet rashness in the 
one case, or his too easy compliance in the other. He is not 
like the dog that returns to his vomit again, or the sow that 
was washed to her wallowing in the mire. He commits not 
this sin, for which, as Peter insinuates, there is no forgiveness. 
Neither does he, like the dissolute man, abandon himself to 
work all uncleanness with greediness. But he is like a man 
who has some desirable object in view, and whose inclinations 
go all out after it ; but who, in the rough and perplexed places 
through which he has to travel, or from the false information 
which envy, malice, or enmity, may suggest to him, at times, 
notwithstanding all his caution and circumspection, deviates 
into by-paths that are prohibited and unlawful to be trodden, 
but who, however, deeply laments over the unhappy situation 
into which he has fallen, and longs to be recovered to the right 
road again. Hence says the royal singer of Israel, mine iniqui- 
ties have gone over mine head as an heavy burden, they are 
too heavy for me. 1 have roared by reason of the disquietness 
of my heart; Lord all my desire is before thee, and my groan- 
18 



202 



HE WHO IS BORN OF GOD 



ing is not hid from thee; make haste to help me, O God, my 
salvation, 

But while we feel a principle of life, and while this principle 
inspires confidence, and prompts, by the light and fervor of its 
operations, to the adoption of the language in our text, we must 
remark, my brethren, that this new creature is not an indepen- 
dent existence; but the relation it daily bears to its author, 
and the connexion in which it stands to the exalted and 
glorious head of the new creation of the saints, have further 
to bespeak the reasonableness of our confidence. Which brings 
ns to remark. 

Thirdly, That it is not to be thought that the believer actuates 
his graces without the immediate agency of the divine Spirit, 
Man is not more dependent upon God for his preservation in na- 
tural beings or for the physical support of his powers in any 
action, than is the believer on the Holy Ghost for the exercise of 
his graces. Though he may say with Paul,. in all his labors, " It 
is no more I that do them; but grace that dwelleth in me;" 
yet the Spirit is he to whom, as the great supplier of Christ's 
presence, he must add, " Without thee we can do nothing." 

To perform this the Holy Ghost is represented in scripture 
as dwelling in the hearts of believers. "Know ye not that ye 
are the temple of God, and that the Holy Ghost dwelleth in 
you except ye be reprobates." The Spirit of God is as really, 
not with regard to what we have termed his graces only, but 
with regard to personal operation and efficiency, in the mind of 
Ore renewed man, as God with regard to operation and effi- 
ciency pervades all his works. We do not say that the essence 
of Deity is any way more peculiarly in the saint, than in any 
other thing, or any other part of space. . This is infinite, eter- 
nal, and unchangeable, and can never undergo the least altera- 
tion, whatever events take place among the works of God 
without him; should their intrinsic natures be changed, or their 
equalities either for the worse or for the better. But we say 
that there are peculiar effects which take place in the mind of 



SKfNETH NOT. 



203 



the saint, by the Holy Spirit residing in it, in a peculiar man- 
ner, with regard to power and efficiency; as a person of the 
Trinity employed on a particular work, in a particular econo- 
mical character. 

Now, since the Holy Spirit dwells in the saints, and since it 
is appointed him as his work, (for sanctification is the work of 
the Spirit,) to operate upon them, and to lead forth their graces 
into exercise, is it to be supposed that he will fail of performing 
this office? Are we to suppose that the love of God contem- 
plated salvation, and that Christ paid a full price of redemption 
in order that his people might attain it; but that the Holy 
Ghost failed in the essential work of sanctification; — that he 
resigned some to the sin unto death, and others to drink iniquity 
like waters? Though for wise ends he permits at times the 
man in whom he dwells to taste of iniquity, yet surely he allows 
not thus his affections to be altogether alienated, nor his inten- 
tions to become thoroughly perverse . That all the graces of 
sanctification may be exercised, in the mystery of his opera- 
tions, he permits, at times, ground for the exercise of repen- 
tance. By this, under his direction, the character of the 
christian, while it forever remains sensible of the necessity of 
humility in its own estimation, is led to be more mild and gen- 
tle in the sight of others. This is one way in which the Spirit 
brings good out of evil, and makes all things ultimately to 
conduce to make a perfect man in Christ. But though the 
Spirit may permit the christian to proceed thus far, he effica- 
ciously forbids him to proceed farther, and to falsify the 
language contained in our text. The renewed son of God is 
kept by the Spirit, even in his worst condition, in the same 
state in which the spouse of Christ was, when she said, I sleep, 
but my heart waketh. Hence the true reason of that saying in 
isaiah, " I the Lord do keep it ; I will water it every moment., 
lest any hurt it; I will keep it night and day." The flowers 
in the garden of God fade, in some seasons greatly languish.; 
hut they never die. 



204 



HE WHO IS BORN OP GOD 



But this Spirit, as dwelling in us, is the representative only 
of Jesus Christ, the head of the mystical body the church. 
Hence we observe, 

Lastly, That the intercession of our great head, in his glori- 
fied state in heaven, secures the realization of the language in 
our text; and urges, the more that his relation to us is surveyed, 
the more earnestly upon us the repetition of it. To the office 
of our high priest, Jesus, my brethren, was appointed by these 
solemn words: "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, 
thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec." 
When God thus addressed his Son, what immutable promises, 
in this solemn transaction, must have been made by the Father 
respecting them who stood by representation in Christ ! Under 
the oath are surely comprehended all qualifications for the dis- 
charge of the mediatorial office; all support during its accom- 
plishment; and all adequate rewards of his meritorious work. 
— When, then, Christ our head pleads thus qualified, and on the 
infinite merits too of his satisfaction — satisfaction estimated and 
approved, for the reward that is due to him : yea, when he pre- 
sents, in his glorified person, that right which all his followers 
have to the inheritance he preoccupies in their name, must it 
not appear, that this language, and this alone, can convey the 
truth : " This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all 
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise 
it up again at the last day?" When God shall alter the word 
that hath gone out of his mouth; when he shall alter this to 
his own Son; when he shall alter it to deny him his reward 
promised in eternity ; promised with his oath ; promised as an 
encouragement to him to submit to his agony and accursed 
death ; then may the christian desert his confidence, and seek 
a new key to many passages of scripture ; passages which pre- 
sent Jesus standing over us, and pouring into our minds the 
water of life which issues from the throne of God and of the 
Lamb. — Jesus, thou Son of God, this is thy language, and 
it must be fulfilled. " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I 



SlN^EiH NOT. 



205 



shall give him shall never thirst* but the water that i shall * 
give him. shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
everlasting life. I am confident that thou who hast begun a 
good work in me, wilt carry it on unto the day of perfection.'" 
Yes, tlie relation of thine all-prevalent intercession to my 
eternal welfare; the emotions I experience, not of might, nor 
power, but of thy Spirit, taking of the things that are thine, 
and giving* them to me; the glorious views which this grace 
creates, and the affections which it inspires; the permanent 
nature of the principle of life and action which the Spirit 
keeps for ever alive and growing in its season — all— all make 
me, amidst the temptations and evils of this trying world, 
though oppressed with weakness, yet breathe this paraphrase 
on the text. " I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, 
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea- 
turre, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which 
is in Christ Jesus my Lord. 71 

My brethren, many of you are weak; but the subjects 
throughout arl nature swell not into perfection in a moment. 
On the other hand, they grow imperceptibly, and arrive at 
perfection under the operation of many elements, which in 
their changes and ultimate settlement are never perceived. 
So says the language of scripture respecting you : " I will 
be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the corn, and 
flourish as the vine, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon,* 
—And is any of you at present mourning? Hear these 
words. "For a small moment have I forsaken thee: but m 
great mercies will I gather thee; in a little wrath i hid 
myself from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kind- 
nesses will I have mercy upon thee; I am the Lord, thy 
Redeemer.'" Yes, christians, you are the sons of God ; and 
if sons, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus 
Christ — of heaven and of glory. Amen. 

18* 



DISCOURSE IX. 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 

Matthew 16: 3. Oh, ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face 
of the sky, but can ye discern the signs of the times? 

It has been the common topic of declamation amongst 
those more zealous for the welfare of mankind, than they are 
observant of their principles and informed of their history, that 
their own generation is the deepest sunk in depravity. The 
world, however, has been on the whole nearly equally depraved 
in every age; though sometimes it has been more veiled by the 
similitudes of virtue than on other occasions. Never were 
men better pleased with themselves, nor had they ground to 
be so, where likeness passed for reality, than that generation 
whose era was denominated the fulness of time; and which 
our Saviour addressed in these severe words : " Wo unto you 
hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which 
appear beautiful outwards, but within are full of dead men's 
bones and of all uncleanness." These Pharisees, with whom 
the Sadducees at times associated against our Saviour, were 
particularly careful to make clean the outside of the cup and 
platter, and to maintain, according to the letter of long esta- 
blished and venerable institutions, the fairest characters. Had 
a disinclination to innovation, and a scrupulous regard exter- 
nally to what God had once instituted, been the criterion of 
man's duty in their days, little ground for blame would 
have been found amongst them. 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



207 



But whilst the world, under various attempts to cover wick- 
edness, is nearly the same in all ages in the substance of her 
character, the scheme of God's grace has actually been advan- 
cing, by the operations of his providence, with a steady and 
frequently an imperceptible pace, to its final accomplishment. 
From the beginning of Ihe world each age has been distin- 
guished by its own peculiar marks. From the obscure and 
twilight view of it in the first promise, it advanced, distinctly 
marking on the great dial of time every degree, until it arrived 
at the fulness of it; and every intelligent and attentive observer 
could be at no loss to calculate the precise character of his 
own days, and the relations they bore to a hopeful futurity. 

This scheme is still opening j and its particular character, 
were it not for the prevalence of a pharisaical disposition, might, 
in our own age, if not accurately estimated, admit of an approxi- 
mation. Our Lord, we apprehend, does not, in these words of 
the preceding context, u When it is evening ye say it will 
be fair weather; for the sky is red: and in the morning, it 
will be foul weather to-day ; for the sky is red and lowering," 
purely have a regard to the innocent observation of the com- 
plexion of the heavens, which, indeed, is at times even the use- 
ful director of the husbandman. But it is his intention to 
apply it to that discommendable disposition which, in the ad- 
vancing kingdom of God's grace, would forget its improving 
tendency, and consider it, in the very midst of its progress, as 
if it had settled down into that unvarying aspect which marks 
the usual appearances of nature. 

The sky , my brethren, exhibits the same appearances in all 
ages ; but the times, in a moral point of view, have a varying 
and an advancing stamp upon them ; and particularly as they 
respect the great scheme of salvation. How many, in every 
age, fall into that reprehensible state in which our Saviour here 
reproves the Pharisees! Many sincere and pious shepherds of 
Israel will read the history of the church, and consider the signs 
of other times; but the criterions of their own, they appear, at 



208 



THE SIGNS OF THE TDIES. 



least, in the sense in which our text requires us to consider 
them, afraid to state in their own colors. 

Our text presents before us the glorious period of the arrival 
of the long promised Messiah, and calls us to mark it, not so 
much by the signs of depravity, as by the wonderful develop- 
ment of the glorious means of salvation. Perhaps a fear of 
not being severe enough on the prevalent sins of the age, or a 
tenderness in interpreting too forwardly the great lines of pro- 
vidence that are bearing on their wings the coming of Christ-s 
kingdom, may be assigned as part at least of the reasons why 
the watchmen upon the towers of Zion have been more forward 
to record and proclaim her dangers than to hail her brightening 
prospects. Had we, however, lived in the days of our Saviour, 
as far as our fears were influenced by Pharisaical mistakes, and 
our tenderness helped on by our indifference, the language of 
that merciful and just one to us would have been, " 0,ye hypo- 
crites, ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye discern the 
signs of the times?" 

To mark the signs of the present times, in their cheering as- 
pects, would require a judgment matured for drawing general 
results from a detail of particulars in the history of past years, 
and which bear a comparative relation to the present day; a 
conception stored with all the facts that are living in the system 
of providence, and operating with much probability to the ad- 
vancement of Christ's kingdom; and a perception into the 
departments of prophecy that will seize the line of termination 
to which the progress of the kingdom of grace will at last 
arrive, ft is comparatively easy to mark the face of the clouded 
and lowering sky of usual errors and common vices ; to tell, as 
has been done of old, that socinian, arminian, pelagian, and 
latitudinarian errors, are prevailing. — The draught of the state 
of the present age which we will attempt to offer, will be some 
very general and imperfect outlines; from which the attentive 
may form some just idea of the character of his own times; 
and which, we hope, the better informed will clothe with his 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



209 



own reflections and remarks, to approach as near as possible to 
what is his incumbent duty. 

From the nature of Christ's kingdom, we must expect that, 
in our age, very forward advances are made to its ultimate per- 
fection. A tree that is perpetually growing, however imper- 
ceptible its progress in barren seasons may be, yet, in the 
accumulation of ages, exhibits a trunk and boughs that bespeak 
firmness and strength, and show the marks of the long and 
steady influences of heaven. The traveller who has been long 
on his journey, though he may have many an impassable 
mountain around which to form a vastly retarding circuit, yet is 
considerably advanced towards the grand object of it, although 
at the moment of reckoning, his face, in his winding way, may 
be partly turned backwards. The river is considerably ad- 
vanced, even in one of those great doublings which send some 
of the greatest rivers on our globe, at hundreds of miles from 
their source, much farther from the spot of the earth where they 
disembogue their waters into the ocean, than when they started. 
— The church has had a stream of vast length in our world ; 
and by this time it must have gathered much strength, and be 
considerably advanced on its course to its highest attainable 
perfection. The vine which our heavenly Father hath planted, 
must be supposed spreading forth now many a promising limb 
of undoubted fertility. 

This church had its origin in that promise which secured 
her privileges and foreboded her future prosperity : « The seed 
of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent. 1 " In after 
ages, she kept a steady pace of that mysterious advancing, 
which, whilst her changes afforded occasions of laying the most 
solid foundation, had evidently striking marks of a rapid pro- 
gress. When the world was swept of its wicked inhabitants 
by the deluge, though the numbers of the church were neces- 
sarily restricted to a very few, yet there was a character, in the 
brightness of typical representation, given to the church, which, 
in no previous age, had she at any time displayed. A cloud 



210 



THE SIGNS OP THE TIMES. 



covered her countenance in Egypt • but whilst her character lay 
in a manner buried in that oppressive and idolatrous empire, 
there were the most rapid preparations making, under the hand 
of a mysterious providence, for bringing her forth in a far more 
advanced stage of her existence, than that in which she had 
ever before appeared, and of clothing her with a brightness, 
fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with 
banners. It has been remarked by some zealous and candid 
defenders of the truth, that their ingenious opponents, by the 
edge of their opposition, did more to lead to the genuine re- 
sults of things than they themselves did$ and while this was 
far from an encomium on their depravity, it may tend to illus- 
trate the mysterious ways in which the church of Christ has 
been advancing to the highest possible perfection of her cha- 
racter, whether she has been among the hands of her enemies 
or those of her friends. The destruction of the temple of Jeru- 
salem, and the desolation of the land of Juda at the Babylonian 
captivity, were events which equally reflected condemnation on 
the ambition of the Babylonians, executed vengeance on the 
guilty Israelites, and advanced the interests ultimately of that 
society around which the wheels of providence continually 
play. An era was now marked for the commencement of the 
glory of the second temple, and for fixing, under arithmetical 
numbers, the period when the long promised Messiah was to 
be cut off, but not for himself; for arranging the rise and fall 
of empires, to introduce among their own peculiar circum- 
stances the last times of the world ; and for summoning the 
expectation of mankind to look for the arrival of the desire of 
all nations. The appearance of Christ himself was at a period 
when great darkness seemed to cover the church ; but this was 
nothing more than another of those mysterious steps, which, 
while man's wickedness appeared enormous, was to mark the 
steady development of God's well ordered covenant of grace; 
and hence, by the adjustment of the previous courses, and this 
rich flow, the river of life now stretched over its former banks, 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 211 

and blessed the fields of the gentiles, as well as those of the 
Jews. Happy indeed was the state of a great part of the world 
in consequence of this great and mysterious event; an event 
which destroyed the wall of partition between Jew and gentile; 
an event which gave birth to the most striking miracles in 
confirmation of the true religion ; an event which interpreted 
the great chain of prophecy; and an event which led to an 
immediate effusion of the Spirit hitherto unknown. 

Many have indeed supposed, that in the dark ages of popery 
which succeeded the primitive and pure times of the New 
Testament dispensation, the progressive scheme of salvation 
received a wonderful check. — That it was then working its 
way under a cloud, raised too in the most discommendable 
manner, by its professed friends, cannot be denied. Yea, the 
mystery of iniquity was then in the power of its operations. 
But to conclude from these appearances that there really was a 
retardation of the operation of causes, which, on the whole, 
were best calculated to subserve the ultimate designs of the 
church, and which, though concealed in mystery from the eye 
of humanity at the time, were clearing their way to break forth, 
like a powerful torrent that has been obstructed in its course, 
into immediately happy effects, would be no less rash and un- 
advised, than injurious to infinite wisdom, and unobservant of 
its results. Was it not the occasion of the awful degeneracy 
of the church of Rome that the Spirit of God made the motive 
of determined opposition to her on purely scriptural principles 
only ? And will not the corruptions of the mother of harlots 
be beacons which, on many critical points, will have settled, to 
every future age, the safe course which inquiring men are to 
take? 

But to ascertain the character of our times, it is not sufficient 
to consult the history of the church, and to show how God has 
uniformly brought good out of evil — making all things to work 
together for her advantage; we must contemplate the actual 
victories which she has obtained. Wheji there is a powerful 



212 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



resource of new armies which may be still brought forward 
with some hopes of success, the state of any cause is yet far 
from the enjoyment of perfect tranquillity. The armies of 
errors, to be sure, that could at any time be mustered against 
the truths of the gospel, were feeble compared to the divine 
omnipotence of these truths; but where men are engaged in 
the contest, to produce victory, it is usually necessary that a 
conspicuous display of principle be actually made. 

Many an advocate, my brethren, has pleaded with tenacity 
and zeal that either the whole gospel, or some of its radical 
tenets, should' be given up; and the way in which the sovereign 
providence of God has been permitting these errors to be mar- 
shalled against the truth, and has always been overturning 
them, together with a statement of an approximation to the 
condition of the controversy at present, must be brought for- 
ward, to discern in any accurate view the particular signs of 
our own times. 

The gospel, my brethren, has completely sapped the founda- 
tions of the pagan temples ; and no man, who is in the least ac- 
acquain ted with the principles of the religion of Christ, will now 
venture the reputation of his understanding, by attempting to 
prove any system of ancient or modern heathen worship equal to 
that of Jesus. — A system, however, which boasts that it could 
procure the glory of the victory which the gospel itself, and that 
alone, did obtain over the polytheism of the heathens, but which 
would rob the gospel of this honor, and then dismiss it as un- 
worthy of the wisdom of the human intellect, was made, not 
long ago, to dispute the field with our holy religion. The 
evidence of our religion is of itself divine, and of itself it pro- 
duces the highest moral certainty. In this state of it, Christ 
and his apostles left the world possessed of the greatest treasure 
it could receive. But there was still a possibility that wicked 
minds would exert their ingenuity to enlist plausible pretences, 
founded in sophistry or the varying manners of mankind, to 
combat the sovereign truths of the gospel. Accordingly every 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 213 

age has had its free-thinkers and its opposers of revelation; 
and particularly since the happy period of the reformation. 
In opposition to these Deists, however, men of genuine abili- 
ties and patient investigation have, by providence, been uni- 
formly raised up; so that, in our day, demonstration is almost 
joined to moral certainty in support of the religion of Christ ; 
and so feeble have their suppositions and surmises become 
among their hands, that these opposers of revelation scarce 
ever now openly and boldly take the field. Above all others 
does the following circumstance afford an evidence, that the 
most profound schemes of its enemies tend only to advance the 
reputation of Christianity. A number of men of great and 
distinguished talents united their activity to their cunning, 
and their reputation as men of letters to the impudency of 
their promises of success, and flattered themselves that they 
were now much more powerful than the first propagators of 
Christianity, and it was determined that they should subvert 
the whole of our religion! They were enthusiasts in the be- 
lief of the truth of their philosophical systems, and they bound 
themselves by the most solemn oaths, that they should efface 
the object of their dislike from the earth; but the fabric of ouf 
religion was too powerful to be shaken. Their complete fail- 
ure, and their utter denial of their principles when exposed to 
trial on account of them, only add new evidence to it, by the 
contrast which their pusillanimity bears to the undaunted car- 
riage of the apostles, and by the utter abortion of their deep- 
est and best laid schemes. Many had before talked of their 
enmity to Christianity ; but till the time referred to, there never 
was an actual practical attempt most seriously made to imi- 
tate by co-operating powers, the propagators of our religion 
with a view to destroy it. This evidence in its favor in the 
awful light of contrast, God, however, did at last permit; and 
this where the most powerful geniuses of human nature were 
united, and where circumstances, as it was supposed, flattered 
still more the hopes of success. Hence while philosophy ws« 
19 



214 



THE SIGNS OP THE TIMES. 



purifying unintentionally the doctrine of miracles, by showing 
the uniformity of the laws of nature,- and consequently the im- 
possibility of an agent inferior to the great creator altering 
them; and while she was separating testimony to the dignity 
of keeping the great post office of all past ages, and showing us 
that experience is a little runner among the lanes of our own 
observation and experiments only- we see, that the proud and 
bitterest enmity of her most gigantic opponents is made to con- 
tribute its share to the overflowing stream of evidence, enrich- 
ed from so many sources, in favor of our holy religion. 

The same holds good with respect to those malicious at- 
tempts that have been made against parts of our holy religion 
by men who are otherwise its professed friends. Arianism had 
once a general currency of which the christian world at large 
have not now even an historical acquaintance; but they have 
been pursued out of every lurking place of false criticism, and 
for shame they will be afraid ever afterwards to show such a 
barefaced audacity. Socinianism has been followed so hotly, 
and plied with such steeled weapons, that it has been driven to 
make so many scriptural criticisms, and all almost equally 
unsatisfactory to itself, it appears now to plead the basis of 
philosophy only ; and to own that perfect inconsistence between 
a- belief of revelation on the whole, and a denial of it by detail, 
that will lead its professors to deliver up their churches to the 
moles and to the bats : for, in fact, a consciencious preaching 
of the gospel, and a keeping of the Sabbath day, may be ob- 
served while they are stimulated and kept warm by controvert 
sial zeal ; but when this cools off, ail that seems to be gained 
by the sounds of words which in themselves always seem more 
fovorable to an opposite creed than to their own, cannot, in 
these days of common sense in philosophy, long please their 
continually increasing philosophical taste. Arminianism^ ae* 
knowledging the great principles of revelation, and supporting 
itself by allowing of a part of each topic for the whole, requires 
a greater acumen of distinction and nicety of investigation 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



215 



than almost any other controversy; and while it has many 
abettors all must own that much is done in our day to settle 
this controversy, above what was before the public some cen- 
turies ago. Yes, ray brethren, it may not be observed by the 
careless who look at their immediate neighbors in their own 
day only; but it is a glorious and a momentous truth, that the 
society of the church, which was weak at first and is advancing 
to perfection, has a steady and progressive increase; an in- 
crease precisely such as her character would require — remov- 
ing every error that can spring up, that at last she may sit 
down, on the glorious seat of her most eminent attainment, as 
that sword of the Spirit, which has slain every enemy, and is to 
possess the brightness of the glory of the last days amongst 
intelligent beings, by giving them the pure results of truth 
tried on every possible touchstone, and universally found gen- 
uine. It is astonishing that so many please their indolence 
and want of reflection, by considering every opposition to the 
gospel as a means of postponing the most glorious state of the 
church, and expect that this state is just to arrive as a great 
and dictating prince among men. No, all things that we see 
and hear, however wicked many of them are from men, are yet 
preparations, from her own wise and mysterious economy, for 
the last and most glorious days of the church : — the thunders 
of her enemies tend only to purify her atmosphere that the day 
may afterwards shine more brightly. 

But to obtain the object of our research, we must add to 
these promises from her character and history, and these evi- 
dences from the removal of all rubbish that would weaken or 
conceal her foundations, a slight review of the present relations 
of the church. — At the Reformation the doctrine of the scripture 
was most clearly stated, and the means of the salvation of the 
soul presented in their unadulterated purity. But the econo- 
my of grace advances gradually, and at that time, whilst the 
individual possessed all that he could wish for his edification 
and comfort, there were most heavy burdens that were oppress- 



216 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



ing and bearing down the facility of the progress of the church 
to her last and most perfect state on earth. There is a great 
difference between the privileges of church members, and that 
pregnant crisis of circumstances which is to produce the most 
distinguished events in behalf of Zion. The progress of the 
economy of salvation is from the beginning to the end of time, 
and in the mystery of providence, God sometimes makes the 
greatest dearth of spiritual provisions to the individual, the 
most fertile source of operation to push forward the progress 
of the society to which he belongs. 

A powerful principle on which to predicate the dissemina- 
tion of christian knowledge and privilege in our day, and which 
had not come into operation in the first periods of the reforma- 
tion clearly among the reformers themselves, and not at all 
among their opponents, is a recognition of the rights of con- 
science. The manner in which this seems now to be adopted, 
and the endeavors that are made to interweave it with the very 
manners of the people, augur prosperously for the interests of 
religion far above what the unreflecting are apt to imagine, and 
deserves particularly to be considered as a striking sign of our 
times. This principle never before was embraced by the ene- 
mies of the reformation, and when many of its principles were 
actually living among them to aid the purification of their for- 
mer corruptions. But the providence of God seems now to put 
into the heart of every one some degree of the benevolence and 
philanthropy of this principle, and to open a door at which the 
righteous may enter. The way in which God hath in many pla- 
ces of the world established it, is truly wonderful ; this bright 
sun of the most hopeful encouragement to the prosperity of the 
religious world having arisen out of indifference to all religion. 
But his wisdom chose this state of the manners of mankind, 
that the benign light itself might first break forth unimpeded 
by opposition ; and then the seeds of the truth would grow up 
under the open and propitious day. Truth has a peculiar and 
a commanding character, and when a free inquiry after it is 



THE SIGNS OF TiiB TIMES. 



permitted, though some may wander from its path by the vani- 
ty and waywardness of their minds, yet, through the divine 
blessing, the multitude are disposed to receive it : — and how 
hopeful now is the prospect, in those regions of the globe, 
where the inquisition and implacable persecution suppressed 
once the most promising buds of the reformation! To be 
sure, in several parts of the continent of Europe where even 
tyrannical and persecuting courts themselves thought that 
they had exterminated the seeds of the reformation en 
tirely, there were thousands who met in the darkness of the 
night to worship, under the sweets of an approving conscience, 
ihe one God by the one Mediator between God and men, 
This was a plant which Jehovah was covering in the hollow of 
his handy till the day of liberty should arrive,- and hence the 
multitudes of protestants who are now found, daily increasing, 
In those countries, where, a few years ago, it was -believed that 
superstition universally reigned. When the arm of man m 
long stretched, its tension naturally begins to relax and its 
grasp to become feeble, if there be little to reward by the 
gratification of passion; and hence the inquisition was in a 
great measure of itself failing to operate before it received any 
formal and legal check ; but what an alteration in the pros- 
pects of the reformed world have we now by the revolutions, 
which, by the mysterious hand of God, have taken place 
throughout the extent of our continent! Previous to these 
revolutions the diabolical spirit of the inquisition through 
out those extensive regions was indeed dying away; and 
books by some of the natives were written with impunity 
against it; but now it appears consigned to oblivion and free 
inquiry after truth invited to assume its place. This inquiry 
in many part* prevails, and we must hope that its results, in 
many instances, will be highly fevorable to the pure r^ligioa 
of Christ 

The forms of religion, my brethren, which ha?e of&med 
among men have been either vast fabrics of supersti%n, or 



218 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



bodies clothed with some of the more refined coverings of it ; 
and all nations, fond to protect what they enjoyed, have con- 
ferred dignity on certain tenets by a national establishment 
of them, and have thus given them, among the people at large, 
an adventitious aspect, as privileges which the fathers confer 
upon their children. People who are so eager to bequeath, un- 
der the sanction of law, their earthly possessions to their off- 
spring, think, under the influence of their religious feelings, 
that they cannot consult their affections for future generations, 
without, under the laws which possess physical force in their 
execution, transferring also their tenets of religion to them ; 
and hence those establishments. 

The christian religion asks not, however, this aid; and is dis- 
tinguished from all others, by its being the only system that 
ever ventured into a nation with the scrip and sandal only to 
adventure its hopes. If it be divine, this was noble, and a 
fair method of making, on such a momentous inquiry as the 
means of preparation for the eternal world, proposals to the 
sons of men. Every man has to learn for himself, and to de- 
cide, as in the presence of God, on that to which his con- 
science is to submit, and the christian religion being divine, 
assumes, in the last and most perfect dispensation, an emin- 
ence of fair and spiritual teaching which sanctifies and separ- 
ates it, like the temple of Jerusalem, from all which would 
aspire after the name of religion. It is mighty to the pulling 
down of strong holds; but the weapons of its warfare are not 
carnal but spiritual. 

Ever, my brethren, since the period of the reformation this 
primitive principle of Christianity, which makes God arone, 
the Lord of the conscience, has been working keenly after an 
ascendency among men; but these after days, on which provi- 
dence has bestowed so many favors, have the pre-eminent 
honor of loosing from the shackles of confinement the hea- 
venly offspring. The recognition of the rights of conscience 
so extensively in several parts of tl# civilized world, is not 



THiB SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



219 



an attainment of speculative inquiry ; but the result of the neces- 
sary progress of human improvement, under that rapid current, 
which, for a century and a half, in science, arts, and govern- 
ment, has taken place. Nor will it be overthrown or weaken- 
ed, as speculative opinions receive currency for a time, and are 
afterwards altered or abandoned. The right of conscience, in 
modern christian society, is like Newton's discovery of the 
principle of gravitation ; which by honesty and ingenuity was 
opposed for a time, but which was afterwards universally 
adopted to account for all the harmonious movements in the 
universe. The rights of conscience, from the supposed dignity 
of ancient systems, will, in different parts of the world, meet 
with obstacles various and powerful ; but the voice of the im- 
provements of mankind in every sense in which they can be 
considered, is, that they are an element which, accompanying 
originally the infant progress of Christianity, now, when she 
verges towards her ultimate perfection, cannot but appear as a 
leader and divine vindicator of the progressive improvement of 
the human race. 

Every nation indeed in modern times, when they established 
what they believed to be the true religion, professed also to 
establish the rights of conscience; but their definition of these 
rights accords ill with the free air of primitive Christianity, which 
boasted of living peaceably with every kind of idolatry that 
might be without; and, before the present progress of human 
society, these views seem sophistical, and the practice of them, 
in every protestant nation, is almost entirely set aside. 

There is a holy guile in the rights of conscience; for while 
beloved establishments of false religions would never surrender 
tiieir fortifications to a direct attack, the claims and arguments 
of these rights, finding no fault with existing errors, obtain the 
free discussion of every important principle; and in a little 
truth alone is found to stand the severe trial to which every 
topic is subjected ; and ever afterwards what has been found to 
triumph on the fair field of inquiry stands erect and immove- 



220 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



able. The principle of the rights of conscience will sap the 
foundations of popery ; will overthrow the fabric of mahome- 
tanism ; and will levej. with the dust the altars yet remaining of 
heathen idolatry. These things are certain ; else the current of 
human improvement must forever run in a narrow channel, or 
its streams must be absorbed in a desert which neither our phi- 
losophy nor religion can believe to be before us. 

But not only are the rights of conscience in the most influ- 
ential parts of the world now recognized j the rights of man 
appear to be beginning to be universally respected. While one 
part of men professing the true religion, continue to plunder 
the other of the most valuable of the blessings of heaven, 
liberty and all its train of indescribable advantages, it may 
well be said, that it is impossible for the former to make many 
religious proselytes among the latter. It is a deduction from 
the most simple principles of our nature, that that religion 
cannot be from God which destroys man. But of late years 
wonderful are the efforts of providence to put a final and an 
universal termination to the iniquitous traffic in human kind, 
and to remove one great obstacle to the general spread of the 
gospel. Effectually to accomplish the grand object, it would 
be necessary that providence put into the heart of some great 
power, able to accomplish the design, the determination that 
emancipation shall be effected. This has been done. With 
more spirit and with more unanimity than is usual in that great 
body, has the Parliament of Britain decreed, " that to traffic 
in human flesh is contrary to the law of nature and nations, 
and that slave vessels, to whatever nation they may belong, or 
in whatever latitudes of the ocean they may be found, shall be 
captured as pirates and treated accordingly." This law and 
others of a similar nature, which in that and other nations have 
since the passing of it followed, are in the true spirit of our 
religion, and will still lead to further enactments — all of which 
measures will excite an inquiry among the formerly oppressed, 
and bereave them of every antipathy to that religion which has 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



221 



effected such an universal change in behalf of oppressed huma* 
nity. The results of these regulations will necessarily operate, 
together with other circumstances, to stimulate prudence to 
provide, by some means or other, for those who are already 
domesticated in bondage. When the light of the sun, as 
Isaiah says, becomes seven-fold, and the glory of the Lord 
appears to all nations, not only will the images of superstition 
be melted down, but the chains of the oppressed will be dis- 
solved. 

But the horizon of the present age is brightened by other 
views than these we have presented before you. To the recog- 
nition of the rights of conscience and the rights of men, there 
are in our day made the most particular active exertions to dis- 
seminate the gospel. Providence, for some centuries past, has 
been insensibly, by the ambition of princes and the interest of 
the commercial world, making the whole regions of the globe 
subject to the knowledge, and in some respects familiar to the 
manners, of christian European nations and our own. This 
was an admirably preparatory and singular step, far preferable 
to all the ignorant crusades of men; though of itself it might 
have been too feeble to attain the grand object of ultimately 
making the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of his Christ. Hence, at the proper crisis, when manners 
were becoming somewhat common between us and these once _ 
entire strangers, and when a commanding commercial inter- 
course might have threatened to decline, God put it into the 
heart of men to prepare a translation of his holy word into its 
vernacular language, and to have it left as a legacy with every 
tribe and nation almost on the face of the earth. There may 
be some things respecting these bible societies we would desire 
altered; but certainly when we consider their assiduity and 
their success in making translations, the light which their en- 
deavors throw on the christian world's prospects , and the ends 
to which God will ultimately make their endeavors subservient, 
compel us to record such peculiar traits of them, as a striking 



222 



THE SIGNS OP THE TIMES. 



feature of the christian world in our days. Long has the 
church prayed for the knowledge of the Lord covering the 
earth as the waters do the sea ; and these means appear in some 
respects to grasp at the whole of the great circle which the 
faithful predictions of God's word have described. Many ages 
may elapse before the plants which are thus sent abroad into 
all parts of the earth grow up unto perfection; but as the book 
of the law found among the Israelites, produced, after a long 
oblivion, a wonderful revival of religion ; and as the scriptures 
preserved among the papists, but almost forgotten in the dark 
ages, gave birth to the reformation; so may the holy word of 
God ornament, for many days, a library, as a monument of 
curiosity only, and then afterwards, by the blessing of God, be 
turned into its native utility. Yea, we may verily believe that 
these scriptures will make some converts wherever they are 
sent, and these living, as the first fruits in all lands, will secure 
the ensuing harvest. 

But another sign of our times, favorable to the interests of 
religion, is the introduction and the establishment among men 
of the proper method of philosophising. In almost all ages of 
the world theory has prevailed, and that knowledge which is 
founded in facts was disregarded. In all the sciences, how- 
ever, it is the method of reasoning from facts that is now 
established. No inquirer after truth in any department of 
knowledge considers theory as a sure foundation on which to 
rest; and till he is satisfied, nature herself must be interrogated, 
and her voice distinctly marked, in instances of proof which 
are permanent as the laws of the universe. 

This general method of inquiry is highly favorable to Chris- 
tianity; for all its evidence resolves itself into facts, and all its 
doctrines refer through enlightened and candid criticism to the 
authority of its inspiration. Some men, indeed, have imagined 
that the facts which form the external evidences of Christianity 
are not the pillars on which our belief of its truth is to rest, 
but weapons which are put into our hand to overthrow its 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



223 



enemies. But we are rational beings, and it is in this character 
only that God deals with us ; and the external evidences of • 
revelation are as much arrangements of divine wisdom for the 
attainment of a particular end, as the supernatural system of 
divine truth itself is an arrangement of it for the accomplish- 
ment of its important designs. The rational evidences of 
Christianity are as really divine, viewed as they ought, as 
the scriptures themselves are. They are not accidental traits 
©r vague traditions, but marks placed by the great Architect in 
the very building itself, or growing out of it, in such a manner 
as to be inseparable from it ; and they have as evident charac- 
ters of divinity upon them as any of the works of God j and 
this too in relation to the very end for which they were intend- 
ed. We might, in reference to our belief of a Creator, equally 
exclude the wisdom and signatures of power in the universe 
from having any legitimate influence in regulating our faith on 
this point, as we can exclude the wisdom of prophecy and the 
omnipotence of the miracles wrought in confirmation of our 
holy religion, from having any just influence in producing our 
assent to its truth. 

There are on which to depend, the fact of its obvious supe- 
riority to all others ; the fact of many prophecies contained in 
it, and many of these undoubtedly fulfilled ; and the fact of 
miracles. The passage of the Red Sea, and the manna enjoyed 
for forty years, are evidences of God's presence and operation ; 
an account of which, we may remark, we have in the very midst 
of the laws which regulated the politics and justice of a nation 
that was singularly separated from all others, and which had 
used the same laws ever since that very age which witnessed 
these miracles, and which could not therefore be mistaken re- 
specting them. — The miracles of Christ, too, and of his apostles, 
are extraordinary facts which were not denied in the age in 
which they took place, and in respect to which the first propa- 
gators of our holy religion could not be mistaken — they were 



224 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



facts for which we have more testimony, and this better tried, 
than respecting any thing else found in history. 

In a word, my brethren, there is in the back ground of the 
cheering picture of our times the images of decay which repre- 
sent all false systems of religion, and onwards to which these 
powerful principles which we have presented are moving, effec- 
tually to overturn them. The knowledge of the Lord, it i3 
said, shall cover the earth as the waters do the bed of the 
ocean. The waters of the sea roll irresistibly ; so the advancing 
progress of the church, and the improvements of human society, 
in the arts of government, in science, and in civilization, will 
roll on, refluent only in some parts, and for a little time, under 
a powerfully adverse wind ; but at last they will overpower all 
opposition, in every bay and channel of the world, and will 
settle over the face of the earth in tranquillity. And provi- 
dence, as presumed throughout our discourse, is prominently 
making way at present for this happy period. For while the 
religion of Christ always profFers peace on earth and good will 
towards men, it has in our day a vigor and a nerve in its arm, 
which show that it will flourish in perennial youth. Heathen- 
ism is mouldering to the extremities of the earth into dust; 
and imagination, in the present state of improvement, cannot 
devise a prop to promise aid. Mahometanism was originally 
built on the successes of the sword; but the glorious days of 
the reformation, and the light shed throughout Europe for 
three centuries past, have already, around all the borders of 
the prophet, palsied enterprise, and shown us how, even at a 
distance, the light of knowledge, the prerogatives of conscience, 
and the rights of humanity, will intimidate and destroy that 
power which is actuated by a consciousness of its own weak- 
ness and decay. And notwithstanding popery, by learning 
from the principles of the protestants, has silenced the inqui- 
sition; has guarantied in many places, in some degree, the 
rights of conscience, and has promised to keep faith with 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



225 



heretics; yet, while she, in these enlightened times, withholds ^ 
the word of God from the people and pleads the authority of 
tradition, she must meet with that fate, which a dislike in 
very distant nations to submit to an authority in a moulder- 
ing city among the ruins of an ancient empire, cannot but 
hasten more and more in every age. The very extent of the 
geography of our earth as at present known, and the elevation 
into independence of the minds of men, proclaim a certain 
and an entire overthrow to every system which is not suited 
with facility to that geographical extent, and which does not 
rejoice to go hand in hand with this manly spirit of men's in- 
dependence. " For the weapons of our warfare- are not carnal, 
but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; 
casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth 
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into cap- 
tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 

But while the signs of our times are on the whole, as ar- 
ranged by the providence of God, very encouraging; there are 
some amongst them which, in defining their character, will 
lead us to consider the economy of God's church, as requiring 
many great changes. of providence to display her ultimate per- 
fection. Indeed much of her flattering character at present 
consists of ripening prospects only; and these may have many 
a storm to shake some of them altogether from the tree on 
which we now see them, and there may be many a cold night 
to retard the mellowing into perfect ripeness the rest 

In the first place, there are still in the christian world many 
grievous errors fixed by a tenacious hold in the minds of men. 
We have intimated the wonderful ways of infinite wisdom , by 
which victory over error is in the christian world obtained; 
and both from the very nature of the christian dispensation, 
and the gradual steps by which the human mind will part 
with its prejudices, we are yet to suspect many grievous errors 
oppressing the church. Before these can be banished, every 
20 



2f€ 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 



hold of false criticism throughout the field of revelation must 
be completely broken ; and to accomplish this many years are 
indeed required. And oh! that the Lord would pour out 
his Spirit as a Spirit of guidance into the truth,- for our gener- 
ation is particularly disgraced by talent and inquiry being 
discouraged in the great concerns of religion; and a striking 
sign of our time is the lamentable difficulty of reconciling 
this indifference about investigation, with the cold tenacity 
with which many move on in their former and unfounded sen- 
timents. The scismatics of old were not more erroneous 
than their endeavors were active to defend by resemblances 
of proof the tenets they espoused; but their followers present 
little more in support of their schemes, than that they are so, 
and every thing else is absurd. This is a speck in our pros- 
pects of such an inveterate hue, that it is calculated to shun 
the common weapons of attack, and demands our warmest 
supplications to heaven, that the Lord himself would revive 
his work. 

This indifference il is indeed not difficult to account for r 
even in respect to the most fundamental of religious opinions. 
Whilst the church, my brethren, is so greatly divided as it is at 
present, many of the tenets maintained by the respective di- 
visions as characteristic of their distinct existence, are, in the 
general view of the religious world, held in very small estima- 
tion ; and the carelessness of inquiry which is directed to- 
wards these points, aided by a dislike to that bitternesss of 
dispute which they see so prevalent, leads insensibly those 
who differ on the most fundamental questions to consider 
th ir subjects of controversy as only the common occurren- 
ces respecting religious opinions. It is a maxim in logic that 
what proves too much is good for nothing; and the profusion 
of trivial disputes , among the few zealots who are to be found 
in almost all societies, tends to introduce into the general 
mind, the sentiment that religious truths are not subjects of 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



227 



investigation but gifts of birthright or accident, and men gen- 
erally submit to what is so easy and cheap a possession. In 
our own happy country, where the protestant phalanx is so 
completely broken up, popery in many places is viewed as on- 
ly a common division among the different denominations of 
the christian world; andsocinianism claims a brotherhood, be- 
cause the most orthodox churches are as bitter against one 
another, as they can be against it.; and it is to be feared that 
many an honest mind embraces it as little more at any rate, 
than one of the common sections of Christianity. Which brings 
me to remark, 

That another uncomfortable sign of our times are the divi- 
sions which prevail among christians. The devious errors 
into which many wander occasion the consciencious to shield 
himself under the arm of the Lord, — by assuming a singular 
but necessary station from the fundamentally erroneous; and 
by preferring the character of a sincere and faithful follower of 
Christ, to that of having the general approbation of men. But 
a spirit of division, my brethren, is contrary to the unity of the 
church ; and that not only the beauteous graft appears separated 
from the corrupted stock, but that among the trees of God's own 
vineyard there should be a withering influence universally dis- 
played from day to day, is certainly a great grievance in our 
time, and what both hinders the spread of the gospel in other 
parts of the world, and weakens its influence where it is pro- 
fessed. God's church will advance to her greatest attainable 
perfection^ but surely, while every infidel can tell us that 
christians are endlessly divided among themselves, the sta^ of 
their society is not of itself calculated to aid much in forward- 
ing God's designs. It is a truth that the principles of natu- 
ral religion of late years have been as much questioned, as 
those of supernatural revelation; that difference of sentiment 
on the very first principles of morals has abounded; and that 
an universal agreement of men in the principles of our holy 
religion in the present stage of the church's progress cannot 



228 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 



be expected : but whilst we can plead the difference of men's 
views on all subjects, as an apology for our difference in mat- 
ters of religion, it certainly is our duty, not to run the race 
of division unsent by necessity, nor to widen the gap of separ- 
ation by adding dislike and invective against those who may 
differ from us. Were the character of the true church left to 
be formed by men, each would make his own opinions the 
standard^ but the pattern of the temple of the Lord is delinea- 
ted in his word, and to it we are to conform,- but self-love, an 
overweening conceit of one's own views of controverted pas- 
sages of scripture, and a zeal unbridled by charity, may possibly 
urge this one to embrace an extreme of inflexibility, which but 
ill corresponds with the weak nature of man and his opportu- 
nities in many classes of society of improvement, the general 
tenor of scripture towards weak brethren, and the examples of 
the great in the purest periods of the church towards their 
brethren in Christ. A love properly manifested towards our 
christian brethren in other societies, and reciprocated general- 
ly, would be an antidote, in the spirit of our religion, to the 
cavils of its opponents, who differ more in their own systems, 
than christians in the interpretation of theirs, and it would be 
an effectually preparatory step to that future harmony and uni- 
ty which must prevail. Loving friends soon see with the same 
eye and come to a unity of conviction respecting the truth ; but 
enmity clothes itself in its own robes, and nurses an opposition 
where the very spider could scarce fix a line to effect her murder- 
ous intent. Our divisions then are another sign which make as 
yet very great deductions from the felicity of the prospects, 
which, in other respects, promise so fairly; and while these 
exhibit often a bitterness of party feeling which tosses with in- 
fidel disdain to a useless distance the new commandment of 
our Saviour, " Love one another," our only comfort is, that God 
may bring good out of evil, and that this will ultimately be the 
case. — For the time must come when there will be one Lord, 
one faith, and one baptism. 



'T&E SIGHS 'OF tTHE'TIMES. 



229 



My brethren, I may just remark here, that some great men 
have thought, that though the churches may have something of 
externally different forms, and different churches may have 
different degrees of purity; yet, as long as any symptoms of 
life remain, and -as long as our conscience dictates to us that 
they are churches of Christ, there should he, at all times^ some 
practical circulation of christian offices and duties taking 
place* There is one passage in Durham on the Revelation, 
which, in feeling and sincerity of expression, excels all the rest 
of his admirable dissertations in that excellent work. The 
words flow so sweetly and the candor appears so triumphant, 
that one would think an angel had been a ministering spirit to 
him, and had suggested some of his thoughts. The disserta- 
tion is entitled, " The unity of the catholic visible church 
and in it he proclaims that there is one heaven, and one earth, 
and one Jerusalem the mother of us all ; and this, taken in 
connexion with these words upon the same subject in another 
place, there is an union and communion in the catholic visi- 
ble church, which is one body, one city and house, one com- 
monwealth, one bride and spouse,^ shows us that we might, in 
'his view, as well stop some of the blood in our veins from vis- 
iting every member of the body, as absolutely break up all fel- 
lowship with the parts of the visible church which the great 
head hath thrown around us. This man lived in the very 
brightest period of Scotland's ecclesiastical purity ; and as her 
greatest ornament was promoted to the most sacred station 
which her wisdom and piety had to bestow: and he and sever- 
al others inspired into their own age a terror of separating, in 
the house of God, chamber absolutely from chamber, by hold- 
ing up the seamless coat of Christ, and the breast of the one 
woman who, in the Revelation, gives milk to us alh 

But another sign of an uncomfortable aspect in our time, is, 

many of the most influential characters of the world are indif 

ferent about the concerns of religion or enemies to them, The 

latter day glory is to be distinguished by the kings and queens 

20* 



230 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



of the earth becoming nursing fathers and mothers to the church ; 
and while in the ages that are past the irreligion of many of these 
and other great ones has been obviously administering an evi- 
dence to the truth of that religion, which infallibly predicts that 
not many mighty are chosen ; the fact that this is still the case 
with them is a proof that the church is only advancing, through 
very powerful difficulties, towards her ultimate perfection. 

The causes which have to account to us for this prevalency 
of irreligion among the most influential men in society are, 
principally, the deceitfulness of riches, and the allurements of 
the world which they can easily command ; but perhaps the 
present guardians of the church are not altogether blameless. 
It is our duty to be careful to keep our garments clean, and not 
to be partakers in any respect of other men's sins : but since 
the youthful education of the eminent members of society cul- 
tivates the taste, and enlarges the mind with scientifical know- 
ledge, perhaps, as a great divine remarks, the unnecessary 
homely style in which the great truths of salvation are often 
set before them in writing and speaking, and the undigested 
effusions of sentiment which are exhibited to them as their 
spiritual fare, are great part of the occasion of their irreligion 
and indifference. A minister's lips should keep knowledge, 
not only of the generally known doctrines of religion, but of 
that high quality that will make him appear a leader in every 
species of ornamental or useful knowledge. A simplicity of 
style is admired in all compositions : it shines in the best histo- 
rians; it is the very dress that genuine philosophy will wear; 
poetry weeps when she is divested of it, and divinity is stripped 
of her indispensable ornaments when she is otherwise dressed : 
but to present that which disgusts in style and confounds in 
sentiment for simplicity, is a disagreeable usage, no less incon- 
gruous in the christian writer than hurtful and common. That 
seriousness alone will consecrate ignorance, and childish inno- 
eencies fit for the great office of instructing the human intellect, 
is an error no less prevalently adopted in some departments of 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



231 



the christian world, than mischievous throughout a vast series 
of relations. The priest's lips should keep knowledge,- and 
they should seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messenger 
of the Lord of hosts. 

Thus, without looking at the face of the sky, which presents 
in all ages the same indications of fair weather and foul, and 
which stretches be'hind the neighboring hills only, we have 
endeavored to catch the spirit of the exhortation of the great 
Redeemer of mankind ; and as his church is increasing from 
small beginnings so_ as to cover the earth, we have attempted 
to mark, throughout the field she occupies, the signs which dis- 
tinguish her. If the ideas which have been suggested tend to 
animate the prayer of a heart attached to the welfare of Zion, 
or to direct in lines which before were not contemplated, your 
time is not altogether lost. But the thoughts have been pre- 
sented to them whose observation and knowledge can supply 
my deficiencies and correct my mistakes ; to them who lead 
hundreds every Sabbath day to the throne of grace, to pray for 
the very object, the marks on the way to which we have been 
endeavoring to ascertain; and to them who are particularly 
related to the church of Christ and the management of her 
concerns. 

My fathers and brethren, we cannot forget to lead the Lord's 
people under our charge into the knowledge of those prospects 
for the interests of Zion that seem to break upon our view, and 
to engage them to plead with him who is to pour out his spirit 
on all flesh, that he would hasten the period of his appearance. 
Though we be a small portion of the christian world, our exer- 
tions, if marked with prudence and determination, may be 
attended with happy results. An uniform and a fair vindica- 
tion of injured truth is the province of every disciple of Christ; 
and an exhibition of the beauty of the temple of the Lord, in a 
pre-eminently holy life, may be a blessing to those around us 
and to future generations. Almighty Saviour, be with us 
always, that we being fellow workers with God, thy church 



232 



THE SIGNS OF TlIE TIMES. 



may be presented, in the ministry of thine ordinances, without 
spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, before thee at last. 

Brethren, we are about to meet as the supreme ecclesiastical 
judicature in one branch of the divided church of Christ, in a 
land of vast extent, and in a period of the world pregnant with 
hopes to the cause of the Redeemer,* and each one of us, to do 
his duty, should single himself out, under the dignity of the light 
of his conscience, from all accidental habits and associations, 
and ask, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect 
angels, how am I now most prosperously to promote the cause 
of Christ? This is not to be done to break up our association ; 
but to make each individual appear, as before himself and these 
heavenly witnesses, a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and to make 
him remember that the enemy may come in like a flood. Yes, 
my fathers and brethren, and he comes with the cunning of the 
serpent and the stilness of the pestilence. Saul could mark the 
enmity of the Philistines, and Ahab could prepare his chariots 
and his horsemen to go with Jehoshaphat to the battle from which 
he was not to return in peace; but it needed the divine know- 
ledge of our Saviour himself to discern the torrent which, in 
his day, expended itself in hypocrisy, and zeal for the washing 
of cups and platters. " Oh ye hypocrites, ye can discern the 
face of the sky; but can ye discern the signs of the times?" 

It is usual with us, my brethren, to appoint a day of humilia- 
tion and fasting. This is well; but with us here it is the dis- 
charge of a duty which only prepares a form. We should 
endeavor strictly to ascertain what is the knowledge of the 
word of God which is among our people ; what are their habits 
of religion ; and what is the punctuality of their morality. 

I charge you, my brethren, as stewards of the mysteries of 
God, that you be not imposed upon by the hypocrisy of men. 
Your people may look at the horizon that is immediately 
around them, and they may tell you of the collected clouds of 
error which they see, and of the boding aspect of the heavens in 
this and the other quarter; and you may be ready to accept of 



THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 



233 



this knowledge of external things for that religion which is 
pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, without par- 
tiality and without hypocrisy; which denies itself, and is in all 
meekness and humbleness of mind; and which says, be ye 
kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even 
as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. 

In a word, my fellow laborers in the vineyard of Christ, 
remember that we ought to water with an equally tender and 
an attentive hand the whole garden of God; — we should water 
what is enclosed within our own apartment, and the souls that 
are about all its borders : — For the voice of Christ is to them 
that are afar off, and to them that are nigh, " Go preach the gos- 
pel to every creature, baptising them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and lo I am with 
you always — a saying incorruptible as the light of heaven, 
and which will let no man, that is a minister of Christ, think 
that he can possibly do his duty, without his prayers and his 
exertions being directed to the universal spread of the gospel. 
Amen. 



DISCOURSE X. 



ON THE SABBATH. 

Exodus 20: 8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

When, my brethren, there is any ordinance that universally 
and vitally enters into the movements of society, it is a delight- 
ful thing to be able to trace it to some certain, origin. Of the 
religious observances on which men have attended, few, in the 
greater part of the history of the world, are traceable to any 
acknowledged source. The mythology of the heathen fabri- 
cated a genealogy for the gods, and the festivals which were 
kept in honor of them were ascribed to some feat in their life, 
which had as gratuitous an origin, often, as the divinity of the 
character in honor of which they were observed. 

But the Sabbath, which is intended to maintain a station 
among all the days of existence, and to justify its origin and 
obligation by the relations which it assumes, and by the duties 
which it enjoins, presents itself as putting on its robes of sanc- 
tity in the very morning of creation. " And on the seventh 
day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on 
the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And 
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it." 

This is the first precept which surveys the heaven and the 
earth and all the host of them, and which connects the creature, 
through the wisdom and beauty of creation, with its Maker. 
When the universe was formed, God could not consider the 
fabric as suited- unto the residence of man, until after he had 



ON THE SABBATH. 



235 



surveyed all the steps of his creative energy, saw the spheres 
moving in their order, and the earth stored with the first gene- 
ration of organized existences, having their seed in themselves. 
Then, however lie rested on that day, which was to return as 
regularly as tin: : is measured by the perfection of the workman- 
ship of his ban I, and which to its end is to proclaim to man 
how solemnly the wisdom of Deity retires, on the concluding 
of its works, into its rest. 

There was o npassion in the appointment of this day of re- 
pose. For all things had been put under the dominion of 
man; and to give to (hose which were more immediately subject- 
ed to the labor of his command, a period" of rest, which by 
heaven's command is their own, was kind in itself, and showed 
that even the lower creation have rights which we ought not to 
disregard. There is something that is pleasing to a benevolent 
and contemplative mind on seeing those companions of our 
toil, whose strength requires only our wisdom to direct them, 
in order to accomplish for us what otherwise could not be 
attained, set at liberty to pluck the herbs of the field, and to 
breathe the air of freedom, untrammelled by our arts or orna- 
ments. 

But the sanc'ification of the Sabbath respects principally 
man himself. The inanimate creation has retired into the rest 
of forms of crystalizations, or organized bodies which form 
their seed by the processes of vegetation; and while to these all 
days are alike, yet the very appendages of human society assume, 
as we have just seen, an attitude which bespeaks the voice of 
this day to man On it, while his body rests, his mind is to pass 
over all that he can direct it to of those works of creation, " the 
heavens, and the earth, and all their host," which the eyes of 
Jehovah surveyed, and with which the Eternal was so particu- 
larly pie ;sed. There is not a flower of the field but on that 
day might communicate to him some evidence of the exquisite 
w'.sdom which had been exercised, till the covering of our 
earth was mantled over so as to satisfy the eye of its Creator. 



236 



ON THE SABBATH. 



Not an insect which he sees on the wing, or creeping on the 
ground, but has members which he perceives can be fully un- 
derstood by their Creator only. And before him all things 
flourish to bring forth food for man and beast, so richly and 
abundantly, that he is lost no less under a sense of amazing 
goodness, than in the contemplation of wisdom. — Yet man 
cannot be satisfied with all this. His mind must pierce be- 
yond unto the original cause of all this great and marvellous 
fabric. Yes ; for this day places him not merely in the building 
of the universe to survey its beauties, its riches, the lines of its 
order, and the extent of its dimensions ; but it places him in it 
' to hear the voice which breaks from every part, — the voice of 
the Creator, " Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy." 
On this day, my brethren, the mind familiarizes itself with the 
character of him who himself dwells in light which is inaccessi- 
ble and full of glory. It reflects on his eternity, his omnipre- 
sence, his infinite power, his wisdom, and his majesty of com- 
mandment. 

But the Sabbath soon came to connect itself with the econo- 
my of man's restoration from sin. The sons of God, indeed, 
in the patriarchal ages, were so few in number, and so separated 
by holy habits from the heathen nations among whom they 
lived, that the seventh day is not prominently presented to our 
view as a holy Sabbath, till after a whole people could put on 
its covering, could write its history, could bow to its sanctions, 
and could edify us by their examples of piety on the one hand, 
or of punishment for Sabbath violation on the other. 

When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, God, 
who had originally instituted the sanctification of the seventh 
day, filled the whole economy of Israel with memorials of the 
Sabbath. The manna which came from heaven commenced 
the high veneration which God's command enjoins, by keeping 
within its chambers on that day. Their fields had a rest spread 
over them every seventh year; and all prison doors opened to 
receive the refreshments of liberty on their sabbatical jubilee. 



ON THE SABBATH. 



237 



There is, indeed, no boasting about their primary Sabbath, 
the duties of which were inculcated by the voice of crea- 
tion, and interpreted by the history of the sanctification of the 
Jews ; for during the days of David, Solomon, and others of 
the kings of Israel, the silence of patriarchal times descends 
again upon the history of this day ; and it is only by the spirit 
of praise which was so regular in its courses ; the rearing of 
the temple according to the directions of Jehovah ; and some 
incidental circumstances connected with the building of that 
sacred fabric, that we know that the memorial of creation was 
devoutly remembered by them who so fervently served the 
Creator as the God of Israel. The odour of the sweet smell 
from the sacrifice which was of double magnitude on the 
Sabbath, must indeed have ascended in these times ; because 
the priesthood was regular and its character estimable; but it 
is the commandment and sanctification of the Sabbath, not 
its histories, that revelation particularly regards ; and also the 
sanctions and punishments of this day. For, my brethren, 
though, during many reigns, God says little about how men 
are observing his Sabbath ; yet, he comes forth at last, when 
Israel are in a miserable situation, and tells them, in anger, 
that his land shall enjoy her Sabbaths. " And them that had 
escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon : where 
they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the 
kingdom of Persia. To fulfil the word of the Lord by the 
mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; 
for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil 
threescore and ten years.'" 

It was a comparatively light thing for other nations to be 
conquered and led into captivity ; but for the Jews who had 
the ordinances of the true religion, and the protecting favor 
of the omnipotent God pledged to preserve them, to see their 
city destroyed, their temple overturned, its sacred furniture 
scattered among the heathen, and themselves made the sub- 
jects of derision and bondage, was an evidence of a tempest 
21 



238 01S THE SABBATH. 

from their righteous sovereign; which, though many other 
causes are detailed in their history, shows how deeply God 
was displeased with their neglect of the solemnization of crea* 
tion, and of the most remarkable feature in their own privileges^ 
when, at the end of the period of their punishment, he seems 
to forget all other causes of his displeasure, and fixes on this 
one of their violation of his Sabbaths. People and nations 
may think that God is as careless about the moments of sacred 
time, as their minds are thoughtless or their habits are regard- 
less; but though he speak little of the history of national 
observances, and of individual duties, yet he views those terms 
on which he originally entered with the inhabitants of our 
world, with all the majesty with which the heavens and the 
earth and all the host of them were surveyed, and, on his part, 
he maintains, with all this solemnity, the covenant that was 
made respecting the seventh day. It may be late before he 
speak to nations of their dereliction of duty ; but when he does 
speak it may be among those ruins and desolations which 
were little anticipated ; — and the individual's fate, at last, can- 
not be light or easy. When Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, my 
brethren, rebelled against Moses and against God, he gave 
them a summary punishment, and his own hand alone pre- 
pared the instruments of execution; but when a man was 
found gathering sticks on the sabbath day, he was taken from 
the camp of Israel, he was followed by God's commandment 
and Israel's vengeance, and stoned, as one accursed, till, 
rejected by heaven and earth, he perished. " And the Lord 
said unto Moses, the man shall surely be put to death ; all the 
congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. 
And all the congregation bi ought him without the camp, and 
stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded 
Moses." 

But while the Sabbath connected itself with the introduc- 
tory 'dispensation of the Jews, it was at the commencement of 
the New Testament dispensation, my brethren, that it became 



ON THE SABBATH. 



239 



more vitally incorporated with the economy of salvation, and 
took a higher stand among the relations of the kingdom of 
grace, and to benefit the world. It had, indeed, been lending 
an improving hand to the whole economy of circumcision, by 
its sacrifices, by bestowing at times its sacred name upon its 
most solemn festivals, by subjecting the people and land to 
civil arrangements which its influence suggested, and by the 
solemn warnings which Nehemiah and Isaiah presented to 
the heirs of the promises; but it was only when that dispensa- 
tion commenced, which is to circulate to the extremities of the 
earth, and to continue till the end of time, that it condescended 
formally to modify its relations to creation, and to command 
its observances on the first, instead of the seventh day of the 
week. 

There is an exquisite beauty in this change of the sabbath 
day. For it is only as we return to God by the preparations in 
the covenant of redemption, that we are considered God's 
acceptable children; that we can consider ourselves among the 
concerns of creation, as in the house of our Father; and that 
we can, in a conformity to our redeemed character, suitably 
employ our meditations on many of the most endearing sub- 
jects which revelation presents. On this day, as changed, we 
look back to the redemption of Israel, to their law as given at 
Mount Sinai, to their Levitical priesthood, to their sacrifices, 
and all their festivals; and we see them all incorporated with 
the sabbath days- because while their God is the author of 
nature, he is also the author of redemption; and while they adore 
him as the origin of their being and of all things, they remem- 
ber that their ordinances and events in history are shadows of 
good things to come ; and this redemption of the world itself 
of whieh we speak, is even more than the moving of the spirit 
<xn the face of the abyss; it is the renovation of spiritually 
clead men ; it is the recovery of them from the regions of death, 
that they might enjoy the Creator of all, and the heir of all, in 
the same moments of time. By &e New Testament Sabbath 



240 



ON THE SABBATH. 



we are presented to ourselves as coming forth from the regions 
of destruction; as opening our eyes upon the beneficent Sa- 
viour who leads us forth, as looking into all the relations of his 
character, — the previous figures of it, the great redemption 
which it achieves, the wonderful kingdom which under his 
government is to be maintained, and the glory of eternity in 
which at last it issues; and thus we appear again in the holy 
temple of the universe: and though the form of death may for 
a time cover us, yet of necessity this passes away; and we 
stand with God, immaculate, as was creation on the day of his 
highest satisfaction, and with his Son who is on his right hand 
forever more. — Surely men think little of the annunciations of 
the Eternal ; else when attended by the retinue of creation and 
all the happiness and hopes of redemption, he speaks of a day 
of rest to us, and commands our enjoyments upon it, men 
would not be so heedless and disobedient. But this day, which 
now pays such an homage to the redemption of man, has 
watched, in the revelation of itself, the character of man; 
and while it propounds to him such great things in the land of 
promise which for the present is afar off, it has never viewed 
his character but in a state of alienation from God, and diso- 
bedience to his will; and hence, my brethren, while in the 
primitive revelation of it, there was a simple annunciation on- 
ly, never has heaven mentioned it in subsequent communica- 
tions, but it has enjoined, as if there would be an unwilling- 
ness to obey, and commanded, as if excuses would be devised. 
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. They shall keep 
my laws and hallow my Sabbaths. Verily my Sabbaths ye 
shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout 
your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that 
doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it 
it is holy unto you. Every one that defileth it shall surely be 
put to death ; for whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath 
day that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six 
days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of 



m TUB SABBATS. 



rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work on the 
sabbath day he shall surely be put to death. Oh ! my breth- 
ren, man being in honor did not abide in it, for while the Sab- 
bath has to be guarded for us by these commandments, warn- 
ings, and threatenings; while our worldly spirit cannot be sub- 
dued by them j Adam in a state of innocency had to hear the 
command of God on all the economy of his worldly concerns, 
u be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth;" but this 
holy day, which elevated him above all created things, and 
which led him to the wisdom of his Creator, and communion 
with him as the Lord of all, needed only to be announced to 
him ; and he embraces it — favorably, too, as his heavenly la- 
bored frame did the breath of life which was breathed into 
his nostrils. " And God blessed the seventh day and sancti- 
fied it." 

Some, under the influence of limited views, are indeed unwil- 
ling to acknowledge that there is a christian Sabbath. We would 
not dispute about the meaning of a term. Our Saviour is called 
the Redeemer, the Mediator, our passover, a sacrifice, an atone- 
ment; and these terms lead us, when fully unfolded, to the 
same mental conception ; and so the first day of the week, and 
the Lord's day, when unfolded in their import in our New 
Testament Israel, mean precisely what is signified by the sab- 
bath day. We have, and must have, in the New Testament 
church, a day of regular occurrence to the world, when men, 
who are all descended from one parent, and form one stock ; 
who are immortal beings, and destined to immortality, but whose 
business is to cultivate the earth and to subdue it, shall, in a 
body united as is their lineage, present themselves before the 
solemn aspect of heaven, and claim that they have an interest in 
the institutions of the universal Creator. This duty is a 
standing duty to mankind, while the heavens and the earth 
remain ; and though the day, for reasons of vast moment in the 
economy of our world, may be changed, yet the seventh part of 
our time remains sanctified unto God, as firmly as are laid the 

21* 



£42 



ON THE SABBATH. 



foundations of the everlasting mountains, or as the sun that 
endures forever. 

And the wheels of Christianity, my brethren, could not long 
turn without the assistances of this day. Christianity is mighty 
when you set it forward with all the appointments which belong 
to it; and though the world be depraved, and its principles are 
divine, yet it will gradually remove barbarity, introduce morality 
and civilization, dispel superstition, and bring forward the 
Creator of this universe with his name hallowed among his crea- 
tures. Christianity seemed to be a strange religion as at first 
propagated : a person whom his nation had crucified as a male- 
factor, is presented to men as immediately presiding over this 
universe. — The world never could have received this, if, as some 
great enemies have remarked, it had come forward seconded by 
no other means of propagation than the ideas of immortality 
natural to men, and the zeal of its preachers. No, the omnipo- 
tent truth prevailed ; because it was accompanied by miracles, 
and because the great miracle of the resurrection of Christ 
which the disciples witnessed, bound their consciences to 
water with the comforts of sincerity every step, prosperous or 
adverse, they took in this great cause. And the Sabbath, my 
brethren, the New Testament Sabbath, is to Christianity what 
the reality of the resurrection was to the consciences of the 
apostles and evangelists. Were it not for this day, how could 
m«n meet to obtain an acquaintance with each other as mem- 
bers of a common profession? How could a ministry, which is 
so often and so emphatically spoken of in the New Testament, 
calculate on meeting their audience, and feeding them as the 
flock of Christ? How could the New Testament passover be 
ctfflerly kept, if there were no orderly revolutions of christian 
time? How, in a word, could churches be formed, or remain, 
as all on the holy hill of Zion, if there were not a particular day 
appointed for people to come together as into the immediate 
presence of God? 



ON THE SABBATH. 



243 



Our conceptions are, that if the Sabbath were dropped out of 
christian observance, the whole fabric of the charter of our 
illumination and immortality would soon be given up to the 
moths and to the worms. The most pious parents are often 
too negligent of their children : the children when young are 
fond of any excuses which can free them from the task of 
perusing the scriptures ; and if we have not a taste formed for 
religious knowledge when we are young, it is seldom of strength 
sufficient to be very beneficial to the world, when begun to be 
cultivated in riper years. — But were it not that the Sabbath 
occurs, reminding ministers of their station, attacking the con- 
sciences of parents by the appointed duty of the preaching of 
the gospel, and inculcating upon children the learning of that 
wisdom which is from above, the christian world would soon 
relax in all these exertions, and the consequence would be, that 
the scriptures would be consigned to neglect. Yea, the Sab- 
bath, like Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, often preserves, 
amidst an universal corruption of principle and practice, the 
knowledge of God on the earth, and by its connexions with 
public society is used for the spreading of reformation, and 
watering, like the river of Paradise, the garden of God. In the 
dark ages, men's minds were in general as destitute of the 
genuine knowledge of the religion of Christ, as the trees in 
winter are of leaves; but yet people could not bury the form of 
the sabbath day ; it remained a pledge that the christian con> 
munity might be easily attacked, and carried triumphantly 
back, like the ark of God into its habitation in Israel. Had it 
not been for this day, the reformers never could regularly have 
assembled the people, to tell them of the lights of humanity, of 
the arrogance of spiritual power, of the vengeance of God 
against idolatry, and of the sacrifice that he had been long pre* 
paring to have offered np, to satisfy for that darkness and 
idolatry which tarried so long, like an eclipse of the sun, over 
our world. 



244 



ON THE SABBATH. 



The Sabbath comes, my brethren, at proper intervals of time, 
when the nature of man, his dispositions, and his circumstances 
of life, are considered. Came it more frequently, the urgen- 
cies of labor would plead their cause so effectually, that arrange- 
ments could not be made; and the refreshments for the weary 
could not be so properly relished. And were the time much 
longer, the joy at the meeting of friends might, in process of 
time, degenerate into those tumults which all distant and regu- 
lar assemblings of men create. The festivals of the heathen 
gods, which brought acquaintances to their solemn devotion, 
without any intermediate preparation, at somewhat distant 
intervals of time, soon wrought them into an effervescence of 
carnality and religious frenzy ; by which reflection may proceed 
to make an estimate of that precautionary wisdom which ana- 
lyzed the circumstances and constitution of man, and left 
nothing out of account which could possibly impair the bless- 
ings of this day of rest. 

Returning as it does, the Sabbath is not only the depository 
of the riches of our religion for the world, but it is the principal 
spring in the great machinery of human improvement. Men 
are ill judges of events and divine institutions. Had an infidel 
been present when Abraham circumcised himself and his son 
Ishmael, he would have laughed at the folly of connecting that 
event with all ages of the world, as about to exert a powerful 
influence over them ; but he cannot now deny, that it was the 
claim of Abraham which encouraged his children to put them- 
selves in possession of the laiid ?f Cartaail; that Moses' institu- 
tions aspired to an immediate stK srviency to the accomplish- 
ment of the covenant of circumcision ; that the attachment of 
Israel to the holy land arose not from its hills and mountains, 
but was a holy patriotism, which, under the forms of religion, 
descended from father to son ; that the controversy about the 
Messiah, who was expected to be king of the Jews, issued in 
the death of Christ; that, somehow or other, immediately after 



ON THE SABBATH. 



245 



this event, a portion of the Jews disseminated a new religion, and 
enclosed in it circumcision not made with hands, and a change 
of the sabbath day; that this religion has to number among its 
professors the most enlightened nations of the earth; that it 
seems not to be waxing feebler, but to be gathering strength; 
and that there can be no bounds set to the circulation of events 
which can be all traced, as connected with it, to Abraham's 
circumcision of his son and of himself. So the Sabbath inter^ 
feres with all events, ecclesiastical and political. The world is 
filled with projects, and there is science and art to put them all 
in execution. The family of mankind, in that portion of their 
habitations with which we are concerned, have elements of 
power and arrangements of wisdom which are truly admirable. 
But how has society been stimulated to all this successful exer- 
tion? The greater part of human society are what seek the 
comforts and necessaries of life, and never aspire after the 
mean spirit of the miser. The Sabbath visits and invites them 
into its assemblies, and they are desirous to have themselves 
washed and dressed, as Abraham had the angels of heaven's 
feet washed before they sat down at his table. It is the call 
throughout Christendom for the decencies and comeliness of 
clothing for our Sabbath's assemblies, that brings forth and 
sustains so many of God's poor and laborious citizens in their 
workshops, not only among christian nations themselves, but 
even in some degree among mankind to the extremities of the 
earth, ft is this taste which principally commands navigation to 
spread her sails, and to go from nation to nation in quest of 
what art has prepared ; and bespeaking new flights of science, 
by the encouragements of which the arts may be still further 
improved. The sabbath day is like the. words of Moses, who 
first revealed it, to the poor of the cities and villages of our 
earth : these dropped as the rain, and distilled as the dew ; as 
the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon 
the grass. Where the Sabbath has not been known, indeed, 
there have been some cities apparently very rich and splendid; 



246 



ON THE SABBATH. 



such as Tyre, Memphis, Athens, and ancient Rome. There 
were, however, only some of the people in these great cities that 
were arrayed like princes; the multitude were mean and desti- 
tute; and the influence of the riches of these great cities could 
not spread itself over all ranks of the community, reaching to 
every hamlet, and spreading improvements throughout every 
cottage. It was necessary in order that this might take place, 
that there should be times which would bring people regularly 
together, where solemnities of exercise must be maintained, 
and where decencies of appearance would be indispensable. 
The hermit may live in superstition, the anchorite may place 
virtue in filthiness and in rags; but it was not without a pro- 
phetical import, that the high priest of the Jews, on the great 
passover Sabbath at the commencement of every ecclesiastical 
year, clothed himself in all the comeliness of dress, with the 
urim and thummim on his breast; for while the ornament of a 
meek spirit is the chief thing with the christian, yet this ap» 
pearance of his, was an emblem of what the world would put 
on, in after ages, through its improvements, by means of the 
sabbath day. 

It was a congenial and an apparently providential arrange- 
ment, which gave origin to that system now so extensively in 
operation of organized sabbatical instruction of youth, in a 
great manufactory of the most manufacturing city which our 
world ever beheld : for were the Sabbath given up in its obser- 
vance among mankind, in its influence over society, both religious 
and irreligious, the manufactories might have a few supporters 
among the affluent and the great, but the multitude, the power- 
ful and unbounded family of consumers which now support 
them would disappear. You manufacturers who happily have 
almost every where connected with your institutions a sabbath 
day's instruction of your youth, inculcate particularly on them 
two principles of belief; that the Sabbath is of perpetual and 
immutable obligation, and that, as their industry is so regular 
and mechanical here, so there is a free and an intellectual rest 



ON THE SABBATH. 



247 



for them in a better life than this. Instructers of youth on this 
day, who so benevolently assist parents and guardians of child- 
ren in their rearing them in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord ; recollect that you have the most difficult prophecy in 
all revelation to aid in its fulfilment. A single orator can 
change the sentiments of a whole assembly, and a single re- 
former can carry after him a nation ; but youth must be indi- 
vidually led into knowledge, and it will require great perseve- 
rance and care to clothe them with those principles and prac- 
tices, by which, according to the scriptural use of language, it 
can be said of them, that they know the Lord from the least to 
the greatest. 

There are some people who exclaim against the ministers of the 
gospel, as idle and unproductive members of the community, 
and who live to consume the earnings of others. But this is 
the most inconsiderate and superficial of views. Without the 
ministers of the gospel the sabbath day could not be observed 
with its improving tendencies and relations. The ministers of 
the gospel are, among other designs, an especial ordination of 
providence to stimulate to the cultivation of those arts of life 
which would necessarily languish if the consumers of their 
products were essentially reduced. An army might as well 
cast off its recruiting officers, as wisdom in modern politics can 
seek to cast off their greatest and most effectual aids, who not 
only promote science in many instances themselves, but whose 
administrations stimulate every art, to increase population and 
to ornament it, so that the lowest of the christian race are bet- 
ter educated, better fed, better clothed, more healthful from their 
activity, and more moral from their habits of industry, than 
ever the poor were, or can be, in any other possible situation. 
It requires reflection indeed to see this ; a comparison of ancient 
with modern times, and of the other nations of the earth with 
christian communities : but the man or the woman, who could 
make these comparisons, and would then wish to keep up an op- 
position to the preachers of the gospel, has never considered the 



248 



ON THE SABBATH. 



springs of the improvements of the human family, and is an indi- 
vidual who might deny the existence of mind because he never 
sees it but in its effects. The religion of Christ as administered 
by his servants and in support of his ordinances , is carrying for- 
ward the human family, with the wheels of improvement turn- 
ing in every chamber where utility or ornaments can be pro- 
duced, to the highest state of civilization here, and prepares for 
happiness hereafter. 

Considering that the sabbath day was appointed at the com- 
mencement of time, it is wonderful in its adaptations unto the 
extent and character of revelation. The scriptures are what 
contain many histories; a wonderful intricacy of divinely ap- 
pointed ceremonies; many prophecies about individuals, cities, 
and nations; many duties, spread over every relation of life; 
many doctrines sublime in mystery, or elevating by their imme- 
diate connexion with eternity ; and many promises to infancy 
and old age, to us here and hereafter; and to become familiar- 
ly acquainted with all these requires that conscience be awed 
to take its seat for the business of education very frequently, 
and without much distraction from the urgencies of business, 
or the impertinence of visitation. — The heathen world in its 
famous schools educated a few individuals, and from despair 
delivered up the rest to comparative neglect ; and the modern 
world in relation to the sciences never can promise itself any 
thing more ; but the religion of heaven, the most benevolent of 
all systems, takes men under the chair of its wisdom, to train 
them in the principles of morals and in the hopes of piety ; and 
to obtain this grand purpose, the sabbath day, particularly, is 
set apart to this end. The bible is a vast volume wilh its 
treasures rich and momentous before the eye; but they are like 
the stars of heaven thrown loosely into their habitations; and 
we have to search every part, and gather them up into particu- 
lar arrangements for our edification ; and to enable us to do 
this there is thrown around us the stillness and peace of crea- 
tion, the seventh part of our time. Some of you, my brethren, 



ON THE SABBATH. 



249 



have had ten years given to you by God to learn his will from 
revelation, — ten years of holy Sabbaths ; and yet with many of 
you there is a barrenness like the borders of the Dead Sea; a 
sad evidence of man's depravity, and of the justice of God, 
when, in punishing professing nations, he forgets all other 
transgressions, and reckons with them only for his Sabbaths. 

The busy cannot, from the nature t)f the human mind, be 
very apt to learn those spiritual truths, the nature of which 
differs so immensely from the objects with which they are 
usually conversant; but the Sabbath is to them a benevolent 
and most wisely adapted appointment. It never takes them at 
unawares, and it consecrates to their service a momentous part 
of their time; more days to the most of men than genius 
pleads for its cultivation in seminaries of learning : and this is 
granted to them with formal expositions of scripture and expla- 
nations of texts, which, in the preaching of the gospel, are 
always applied to the conscience : — to make them appear, while 
all other arrangements among men seem to abandon them, the 
particular children of their heavenly Father, who is training 
them up for himself. Yes, the sabbath day, to the poor and 
laborious, comes in many blessed characters; among which 
this is not the least remarkable, that it is to them like God's 
voice to Noah when it commanded him to enter into the ark of 
his rest. — There, my brethren, he saw the justice of God, the 
mercy of. God, the majesty of the divine dispensations, and 
hopes which were beyond the surrounding chaos, in a school 
where education went on irresistibly ; and the busiest of mortals 
and dullest of mankind have such a concentration of privilege 
on the sabbath day, — time to read the word of God, and to hear 
it preached ; that whatever may be the personal improvements 
which may be made in it, yet this much is clear, that it enters 
into the economy of preparation for the eternal woild, like the 
mysterious principle of life, which leaves not uninfluenced a 

single part of the whole frame. 
22 



250 



ON THE SABBATH. 



The very philosophers are elevated by this day. It, as we 
have seen, has been to them the great magnetical polarity, that, 
in the moral world, steered through the dark ages the vessel, 
which ultimately brought to be easily and extensively spread 
among men, the treasures of knowledge and the blessings of 
free inquiry. And when they have wearied their intellect in 
the pursuit of science, and find themselves by its little steps 
mounted somewhat above the multitude, this day brings them 
to consider themselves and the virtuous around them, as raised, 
in character and relations, above all visible things; and con- 
templating, in its sanctification, and in the resurrection of 
Christ, with which it is immediately connected; the general 
resurrection, and the new heavens and the new earth, they are 
placed in an august temple of wisdom, where infinite perfection 
presides, and eternity is the period for philosophy to sit in 
humble contemplation. — As there are seven planets which 
appear to the naked eye, and the sun throws his light over the 
rest; so the Sabbath gives light to all the rest of the days of 
the week, presenting man, whether in a high or a low station, 
whether learned or unlearned, upon these as still an immortal 
being, — who, on the day which remembers creation, comme- 
morates redemption, and anticipates a glorious repose hereafter, 
puts on all the solemn reflections of a religious being, and 
advances forward to immortality. 

This is a day, the duties of which are not easily performed. 
When it returns, the busy world might cast their tasks from 
their hands, and on it might be silent as the assembly of Israel 
when Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple , and yet 
the spirit of pious awe and gratitude which this day inculcates 
not appear among them. The meditation of this day, having 
glanced through the heavens and the earth, and all the host of 
them, as was remarked in the beginning of the discourse, enters 
into the fields of what is emphatically called the kingdom of hea- 
ven, and there, we must now state to you, the understanding re- 



ON THE SABBATH. 



251 



poses with amazement and gratitude upon the monuments of 
divine love. God is heard saying to his Son, " I have called thee in 
righteousness; I will hold thine hand and will keep thee, and 
give thee for a covenant to the people and a light to the gen- 
tiles;" and the Son replies, " Here am I, send me:' This Son 
appears in the prophecies, like the ascending rays of the sun, 
gilding the hemisphere, and diffusing brightness as the morning 
advances. At length he appears in the full resplendence of his 
power. Every prophecy is fulfilled, miracles are performed, 
the spirituality of the law is interpreted, justice is satisfied, a 
resurrection from the dead takes place, the ceremonies of the 
law are abolished, the spiritual ordinances of the New Testa- 
ment are established, life and immortality are brought to light, 
the resurrection and the judgment are seen; and while all 
these things are attended to, it is as in the immediate presence 
of God, and while the offer of life and death is made imme- 
diately to the conscience. That man, my brethren, keeps not the 
Sabbath, who sends his beasts of burden to the pastures, or who 
closes the doors of his workshop; who is displeased and mur- 
murs at the unhallowed steps of his neighbor in pursuing his 
profit on that day: the Sabbath is kept when the great works 
of creation and redemption impress our mind and heart, and 
when our affections are set, not upon the things of the earth, 
but upon the riches, the profits, and the honors of immortality. 
We are not opposed to national laws which may break down 
the folly and depravity of men, in their interference with the 
rights of heaven on this day: this day is the world's privilege , 
and the powers of the world have a right to protect it; but they 
are not the laws of man, nor the laws of God as administered 
by man, that can give, before the eye of heaven, a fairness to 
the face of this day. I have no doubt but the children of Israel 
had some fine forms of observance, and little more interruption 
on some of their Sabbaths than the lowing of their herds and 
the bleating of their flocks; but the Lord was angry, and thus 
remonstrated with them; Whp hath required this at your 



252 



ON THE SABBATH. 



hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; 

incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sab- 
baths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is an 
iniquity, even the solemn meeting." The majesty of heaven de- 
scending upon the nations of the earth, the nations which enjoy 
revelation, and have the relations of this holy day explained to 
them, should make them, by their rulers and magistrates, try to 
prevent, around the whole borders of their habitations, a stick 
even from being picked up by an unhallowed hand: — but sur> 
pose that this were attained ; the holiness of this day would, 
after all, like the vision of the prophet, have only some dry 
bones: — the Spirit of God must breathe upon the forms of rest 
which the nation would present; must give life to them, and 
make them stand up in the attitudes of acceptance. 

The duties of this day are suitably performed when the mind 
commences it with meditation on the works of God and 1 the 
salvation of sinful man; when it proceeds to personal acts of 
devotion, and a careful consultation of some part of revelation; 
when the family society which providence keeps together 
acknowledge their dependence on the Almighty's goodness 
and grace, and express their gratitude for his care and mercy ; 
when men go to the temple of God to hear of his greatness, 
his holiness, his moral government, his displeasure at sin, his 
commands to repentance, his promises of assistance, his orTers 
of the pardon of sin, his communication of holy dispositions, 
his diffusion of the Spirit as the spirit of perseverance, his 
gathering of his people to the joy of immortality, and his 
placing of them forever at his own right hand; when, 
on their return home, families continue their devotion — 
parents meditate on the various changes of providence 
which may befall members of their family, and ask the 
divine blessing on all such that have passed, or may* yet 
pass over them; and strive to keep the whole always like 
the patriarchs, pilgrims here, and still seeking after a better 
country . 



m m% sabbath. 



How- elevated is a christian as he is contemplated on the 
«abbath day ! In the midst of his relations, he thinks of the uni- 
verse throughout boundless space, and with every part of it 
this day solemnly connects him. He is redeemed to immor- 
tality, and is presented to himself as an heir of the enjoyments 
which all things present*; and as the angels of heaven ascend 
and descend quick as thought-; as Christ ascended without 
being impeded by gravitation on his journey any more than is a 
ray of light; and as Moses and Elias, at the transfiguration of 
Christ, appeared and disappeared, as common visitants make 
their morning calls; so in the ceaseless ages which are before 
iiim, he has the prospect, in the immediate presence of the 
universal Creator, of visiting all, and of enjoying all. " AH 
things," says the scripture/ 4 are yours; for ye are Christ's, and 
Christ is God's." 

Some, indeed, in respect to the rest which remains for the 
people of God, suppose that the general assembly of God's 
righteous creatures is forever to sit, in our acceptation of the 
term, around the throne of the Eternal. We do not deny 
that in the highest heavens, of which the scriptures speak, there 
is a more immediate display of the divine glory than any where 
^else, and that as the children of Israel returned on their most 
solemn festivals to the tabernacle in which was the divine 
presence, so the saints in heaven will return from every corner 
of the new heavens and the new earth to this most glorious 
habitation: but as the word « heavens" includes the creation of 
God, we apprehend, that as all his works are said to praise 
him, so, in the ceaseless ages of eternity, the righteous will 
visit every quarter, increase their admiration over every object, 
and make the boundless creation, in some respects, the temple 
of their praise. The law of the Sabbath, indeed, almost 
necessarily connects itself with this boundless field of the 
praises of the glorified saints. It was enacted by the divine 
majesty, as his eye surveys the heavens and the earth, and aM 



264 



ON THE SABBATH. 



their host, and it descends upon all the concerns of life ; upon 
empires and upon states, upon sons and upon daughters, upon 
man servant and upon maid servant, upon cattle, and upon 
the stranger who is within our gates ; and it collects matter 
for its praise from the throne of God and of the Lamb, from 
the ministry of angels, and all the mighty acts of the Lord, 
from the history of past ages, and from the prospects of those 
which are to come, from dragons and all deeps, from fire and 
hail, snow and vapor, and stormy wind fulfilling his word, from 
mountains and all hills, from fruitful trees and all cedars; — 
but if the child of a day goes thus round creation to enrich 
his melody of praise, what must the inhabitant of eternity do 
with all the glories of the new heavens and the new earth in 
which dwelleth righteousness? There remains a rest or Sab- 
bath for the people of God ; but it is an eternal Sabbath, in 
which they will praise him in his sanctuary, and from every 
part of the firmament of his power. 

Some have supposed that it is not necessary to keep holy 
the whole of the Sabbath. Some divines of great eminence 
have written in support of this view of the subject ; and no 
doubt among many professors of religion have encouraged 
that carelessness which is so prevalent. But the views of 
these men, though gilded by specious reasonings, it is impos- 
sible to reconcile to the language of scripture : " Remember 
the sabbath day to keep if holy, six days shalt thou labor and 
do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 
Lord thy God; on it thou shalt not do any work:" and it is 
inconsistent with the interminable exercise and praise of 
eternity. Yet I would grant that the Sabbath might authorize 
sports, recreations, amusements, and theatrical exhibitions, if 
it were first demonstrated that the word of God, with all the 
extent of which, it is intended, that the Sabbath shall afford 
an opportunity of becoming acquainted, is to be withheld 
from our perusal and from the perusal of our children. The 



ON THE SABBATH. 



255 



Sabba h would be a most incongruous and a tyrannical appoint- 
ment, if to the multitude of mankind, who have no science to 
engage the mind, nor any turn for speculation, the authority of 
it enjoined stillness and rest only ; for the mind of man must be 
employed in some way or other: it cannot remain contented 
in a situation of stillness any more than a prisoner could do under 
the galling restrictions of his chain. No, if our Sabbaths are 
in any measure to be kept holy, we must cast into the arms of 
the illiterate, and also of the learned, the sacred scriptures, and 
inculcate upon their consciences the reading and study of 
them. We must tell them that while in these scriptures they 
will find many duties prescribed on which they are bound to 
attend, yet they are not to occupy themselves in these duties 
only ; but they are to search the scriptures themselves : for the 
Sabbath and they are necessarily connected together; the Sab- 
bath is the sacred time for our going to school, and the scrip- 
tures are the lessons which, under our heavenly Father's 
appointment, we are to learn there. 

The Jews were in the habit of dividing the scriptures into 
portions which might be successively read on their sabbath 
days. This was a wise arrangement, suited to the nature of 
man, and to their circumstances in the world. The primitive 
christians made selections from the sacred oracles, and appoint- 
ed them to be read in their assemblies on the Lord's day. 
Thus, there was a prudential arrangement also to employ the 
Sabbath, by that variety of instruction which might keep up an 
awakened attention, and which would occupy those hours 
which God had commanded to be devoted to himself. Now, 
indeed, that the art of printing puts the scripture into every 
one's hand, the gathering of the people around us to hear the 
scriptures read, or a particular portion of them, is entirely 
superseded. The command from the mouth of our Saviour is 
to every one who hears him, " Search the scriptures, for in 
them ye think that ye have eternal life; and they are they which 
testify of me." And it is to hear these explained, to attend to 



256 



ON THE SABBATH. 



their principles as inculcated under the preaching of the gos* 
pel, to hold communion with God, and to look for his blessing 
on his ordinances of the preaching of the word and the break* 
ing of the bread of life, that is the end for which we are still to 
come into the public assemblies of Zion. 

And why should any refuse to attend on these public exer- 
cises? The Sabbath is publicly proclaimed to the universe; 
the resurrection of Christ is the great sun of the christian sys- 
tem ; the preaching of the gospel is to every creature, and the 
Sabbath, with all its variety of exercise, holds on to accommo- 
date us in the solemn regions of immortality. Do some think 
that they need not to attend ? that they are already wiser than 
their preachers? All this may be granted ; but good men must 
keep up communion with their God, and with the heirs of 
eternal rest. Is it said that they can read the scriptures in 
private? This is a part of the exercise of the day : but it is not 
like the public institution of the Sabbath, in the face of the 
universe; it is not like the salvation of men, which is to be 
proclaimed to the ends of the earth ; and it is not like that 
public employment in the regions of immortality, where all 
perpetually, and as in one assembly, raise the voice of their 
adoration. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, 
which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, 
so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come 
to pass from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath 
to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the 
Lord. " Amen. 



DISCOURSE XI 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 

1 John 4: 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also 
to love one another. 

My brethren, the inspired author of this epistle says God is 
love. Of the truth of this we have evidences in all the works 
of God. The harmony of the material universe is admirable. 
The planets play in their respective orbits with amazing friend- 
ship; the sun blesses them all equally with light and heat, 
according to their respective neighborhood to himself; the 
winds blow and the rain descends, that the air may preserve its 
salubrity for animal life, and that the whole kingdom of vege- 
tation may be nourished and flourish night and day. In the 
providential dispensations of God there is indeed some appa- 
rent mixture; but the more minutely and attentively they are 
surveyed, the features of love and benevolence become more 
conspicuous. When we attend to the laws of nature, and be- 
hold the boundless exactness in which the great bodies of the 
universe and all general assortments of things are unremittedly 
conducted, though the partial disorders and evils, which we see 
on the face of our earth, cannot fail to lead us to the melancholy 
remembrance of its degeneracy from its original perfection, 
yet we cannot but behold, even through this obscurity, the 
well marked lines of benevolent operations; — and when we 
add, as we must do in relation to our earth, a view of the dis- 
pensation of mercy, which diffuses rays of joy over the whole 



258 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



plans of providence, and even on the face of tremendous judg- 
ments, our language must still be, " God is love." 

Of this attribute of Deity some of his intelligent creatures 
seem to be feelingly sensible. The angels in heaven adore the 
fountain of their life and beneficence, by singing, " holy, holy, 
holy, Lord God Almighly, the whole earth is full of his glory.'" 
The saints make the love of God the theme of their warmest 
praises. Paul exclaims, "Oh! the height, and depth, and 
breadth, and length, of the love of God to sinners, which passeth 
knowledge.'" And this apostle John, wherever he goes, has 
his way, like the bottom of Solomon's chariot, paved with love. 
This epistle is directed to christians in all lands, and whilst the 
writer of it never loses sight of God as the fountain of all love, 
he is diffusing the rays of it amongst men in every region into 
which the epistle can travel. Hence in particular the language 
of this chapter, which breathes nothing but the purest love; 
and two regions of whose most happy operations — the one our 
privilege, the other our duty — are contained in the words of 
the preceding verse, and in those of our text: "Herein is love, 
not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son 
to be a propitiation for our sin. Beloved, if God so loved us, 
we ought also to love one another." 

This epithet, beloved, which in our text John bestows upon 
those to whom he wrote, is no doubt dictated in some measure 
from a sense of their worthiness, as entitled to the exercise of his 
most amiable affections; but principally from that fulness of 
love which could not but overflow from his own heart. That 
stream which carried the Son of God into our world, a propitia- 
tion for sin, has just laved anew this aged and benevolent 
apostle; and as these waters issue from the fountain of free 
grace, so, washed and strengthened by their influence, he can- 
not but stand arrayed in the beauties, and elevated by the 
emotions of love : and as an eminent instance himself of the ur> 
merited and efficacious love of God to guilty and lost sinners, 
this messenger of the good news could not fail to designate 



Olf BROTHERLY LOVE. 



259 



those who make the same profession with himself, by the most 
endearing epithet amongst men, and the one that is the justest 
transcript of his own feelings. 

The reason, however, I must remark, of writing the epistle 
obviously reflects upon some symptoms of those dissocial and 
discommendable affections which, even amongst brethren, are, 
in this frail state of man's existence, found frequently gnawing 
the vitals of social felicity, and rendering the outward charac- 
ter of the beautiful fabric of the church, like a building from 
the walls of which much of the cement at least has been washed 
away. The point which he wishes to gain amongst them is, 
that as " God so loved us, we ought also to love one another," 
— an emphatical expression, which glances at a contrary state, 
which, though his benevolence would willingly cover in his 
affectionate and parental address to them, yet his sense of jus- 
tice cannot but broadly insinuate throughout the epistle. 

This state, presupposed in a greater or less degree in all 
societies to which this general epistle is directed, is predicable, 
in some sense, of all christian societies in every age. It needs 
but a slight acquaintance with the members of any particular 
association of less or greater numbers, to be convinced that the 
law in the members warring against the law of the mind justi- 
fies a minister of the gospel in endeavoring to awaken his 
hearers, by explaining and inculcating the great doctrines of 
the gospel, so as to promote the most essential and fundamental 
views of morality. In no place could the minister of the gos- 
pel, in all the varied circumstances of the church, have erred 
far from the dictates of his situation in choosing our text: but 
when his intercourse for months, and even years, has led him 
more certainly into the channels where their affections are 
either verging to flow or actually running, he sees not only a 
suitableness in his choice, but a singular propriety, which en- 
forces his duty upon his mind with all the precision and 
pointedness of a particular command. — To-day, therefore, 1 



260 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



have to address you, my brethren, in these words : " Beloved, 
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 

This text cannot be fully understood without explication, 
nor felt without deep reflection : hence our method, first, to 
make you understand it; secondly, to make you feel it. 

Our text infolds a comparison : u If God so loved us, we 
ought also to love one another." This love of God is operative to- 
wards us — not a mere affection ; it is the spring whence arose 
that wonderful scheme of beneficence and mercy recorded in 
the preceding verse. Some would flatter themselves that they 
discharge the duty enjoined in the subject of our discourse, if 
they have a mere affection of esteem and regard for those who 
are their brethren in Christ; but the love which is here incul- 
cated resembles the love of God towards our guilty and lost 
world; a love which gave birth to the most illustrious of the 
divine contrivances, and which shines throughout every part of 
a series of operations that are the most astonishing. Love, as 
beautifully exemplified in the sovereign love of God in the pre- 
ceding verse, prompteth us to action, and breathes nothing but 
the good of its object; and as well might we think that the 
principle of vegetation could answer its end by lying dormant 
in the root of the tree; as well indeed might we suspect to see 
a full fountain forget to send forth its playful streams, as we can 
entertain the idea that love can be genuine amongst men and 
be inoperative. Whilst a man is alive the wheels of life con- 
tinue to play, and love being the very life of intellectual society 
will, where it is unadulterated, exert its influence throughout 
the whole range of objects contained within the circle of its 
relations. It resembles in the moral world that mysterious 
principle of gravitation in the natural , by which all objects are 
continually kept in motion ; and as soon should we expect to 
see the sun neglect to rise and set, and the seasons of summer 
and winter, of seed time and harvest, to return, as we can 
expect to see genuine love defined by a mere aflection only. 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



261 



No, God loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our 
sins, and as he loved us, so we ought also to love one another. 

To mark all the channels through which this love flows, and 
by a survey of which we will learn its true character, would 
lead into an endless field ; and at present we shall direct youi 
attention to a few only of the most copious and interesting. Jt 
would be unnecessary to mention the concealed but all-power- 
ful channel by which our love promotes the good of one another 
by our most fervent devotions at the throne of God. Our 
Maker is the primary source of all good, and as the blood which 
is sent from every part of the system to the heart, thence de- 
parts with new life and vigor throughout every part again; 
so our love for one another, which concentrates in the fountain 
of life, is sent forth in such purity and renewed vigor, as emi- 
nently entitles this course to the first place, and supersedes the 
necessity of our insisting much upon it. Hence says the 
apostle James, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man 
avails much. Hence, too, the many instances in which judg- 
ments have been averted, and showers of unmerited blessings 
have fallen in their stead. Thus when Moses, in the first noted 
experiments of war by the children of Israel, held up his hands 
in adoration of the God of armies, the Israelites turned the tide of 
victory. Thus Elias, who was a man subject to like passions with 
ourselves, prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained 
not on the earth by the space of three years and six months ; 
and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth 
brought forth her fruit. Well does Paul, who fervently remem- 
bered the churches in every prayer of his, exhort us, saying, 
" Pray always, with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, 
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication 
for all saints — For the love which we thus bear our brethren 
ascends to the God of love, and from him it descends to fruc- 
tify and render fertile the whole hill of Zion. Yes, as the rain 
is first collected in light vapors by the heat of the sun from the 
waters of our earth, and afterwards falls in copious showers to 
23 



262 ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 

fertilize it, so our benevolence, which is so feeble often in itself, 
ascends to heaven on the rays of supplication and prayer > and 
again returns in drops of divine mercy till the wildernesses of 
human society blossom as the rose, and the desert becomes a 
fruitful field. 

But whilst we are not to forget to love one another at the 
throne of grace, there are lines of intercourse amongst men 
where this love immediately and visibly operates. The first we 
mention is in that benevolent and candid disposition which 
thinketh no evil. Because it gratifies our self-love to possess 
estimable qualities which others do not wear, or at least with 
very faint colors, no passion of the human mind is more apt to 
betray us, than a disposition to allow,, in the fairest of charac- 
ters, some secret and hidden weakness, which is more indebted 
for concealment to tranquillity of situation than to real virtue, 
and which we may expect to break out when the storms of 
provocation wax high. This was the way that the author of 
malice himself reasoned against the holy patriarch Job; and 
there are in the hearts of many some concealed but active drops 
of that poison which the Spirit of God here indeed represents 
in the mouth of Satan, because of the lamentable prevalence of 
the fact amongst men respecting estimable and highly favored 
characters. Says Satan, "Does Job serve God for nought?" 
and we are apt to ask, does such an eminent saint maintain his 
integrity from no other motives than what feed the flame of 
pure religion and virtue? 

Owing to this discommendable disposition, a report which 
the slightest breath of pure candor would strike to the ground, 
will not accidentally arise, without lessening greatly our esteem 
of the person on whom it hath alighted ; without making us shy 
in the support of our friendship towards him ; without being 
circulated to eveiy opening avenue of society, and without being 
permitted to wander at pleasure, and sting to death like an adder. 
Respecting his venerable and virtuous father, Absalom insinu- 
ated the most groundless and wicked report — presuming him- 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



263 



self more fit to reign than he, saying, "Oh! that I were made 
judge in Israel and the covenanted people, actuated by prin- 
cipled too common in human nature, unfurled the banners of 
rebellion against their aged and venerable sovereign, and the 
Lord's anointed. — This disposition is at the deepest enmity 
with the laws of love — it wars against the very principles of it, 
and endeavors to overthrow them ; — and hence an inadvertent 
expression or an unguarded action frequently blows it up into 
that flame which burns through life, which destroys societies, 
and effaces nations from the earth. On the other hand, my 
brethren, accompany me to the endearing and pleasing field 
where candor and liberality reign. All the malice of his father, 
and the influence of his splendid court, could not bias Jona- 
than's mind towards his beloved and innocent friend. 
Jonathan undoubtedly was one of the most spotless characters 
among mankind, unlike the ambitious and ungracious princes 
of the earth ; — for though he loved his father, and fought and 
died with him, yet his love was such a pure diamond, it cut 
every glass which the furnace of malice could blow and tinge 
with the colors of deception, and then looked at the supposed 
enemy of his father, and the divinely appointed heir of all his 
illustrious possessions, in the pure and direct rays of the sun of 
love. Thinking no evil, his conduet shines out from amongst 
a corrupted and prejudiced court and family, no less bright an 
example to every succeeding age, than a happy instrument of 
saving at present the anointed of the Lord. " And Jonathan 
said unto David, come and let us go out into the field. And 
they went out both of them into the field. And Jonathan said 
unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have sounded my 
father about to-morrow any time, or the third day, and, behold 
if there be good towards David and i send not unto thee: the 
Lord do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my 
father to do thee evil, then I will show it thee, and send thee 
away that thou mayest go in peace; and the Lord be with thee 
as he hath been with my father. And thou shalt not. only, 



264 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



while yet I live, show me the kindness of the Lord, that I die 
not : but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house 
forever: no, not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of 
David, every one from the face of the earth. So Jonathan 
made a covenant with the house of David, saying, let the Lord 
even require it at the hands of David's enemies. And Jona- 
than caused David to swear again, because he loved him : for 
he loved him as he loved his own soul." 

But I observe, secondly, That this love discovers itself in 
the words of the mouth. Perhaps there never was on moral 
subjects an expression which conveyed the truth only, and yet 
approached apparently so near to exaggeration, as that which the 
spirit of inspiration puts into the page of the Apostle James, 
u The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity." To govern the 
tongue according to the circumstances in which we are placed, 
in such a manner as to manifest that we love our neighbor as 
ourselves, is a much more difficult task than what many are apt 
to imagine. This requires such a nice discrimination of human 
character, and of the particular humors of men, as few attain to; 
and then such a delicacy of our words themselves, and even of 
our manner of uttering them, as still fewer, in this state of 
turbulent passions, are in any suitable degree able \o enrol 
under their authority. Yes, reflecting on what an inconsiderate 
word, or an unguarded tone even of voice, will occasion 
amongst the irritable and proud ; reflecting that a single word 
-dropped among the influential but haughty members of society 
will loosen and tear from their roots the most populous com- 
munities and beneficial institutions, we see an eminent beauty 
and force in the inspired proverb, " How great a matter a little 
fire kindleth." To do our duty properly here, we ought to 
remember that our love towards our brethren should resemble 
that forgiving and conquering love of God, by which he loved 
us, and gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sin : — a love 
which will reign, and has a determination not to be offended, 
till the last possible means of communicating its treasures and 



OS BE OTHER! Y LOVE. 



265 



■riches are neglected and despised. 44 1 am not willing that 
any should perish, but that all should come unto repentance.'' 
My brethren, 1 doubt many of us seldom consider how diffi- 
cult a matter it is to tame that unruly member of which the 
Spirit says: u So is the tongue among our members that it 
defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of na- 
ture, and is set on tire of hell: for every kind of beasts and of 
hirds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed and 
hath been tamed of mankind: but the tongue can no man 
tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.'" — I say I 
doubt many of us seldom reflect how difficult a matter it is to 
order our speech aright, else the ties of friendship would not 
so often appear a rope of sand, — else the little societies of 
families would not so often resemble the meetings of the lion 
and the tiger, — else the sacred associations of christian com- 
munities and congregations would not so often bear an analogy 
to a bomb-shell of war, which destroys itself and all within its 
influence. 

The most difficult part of our duty here is where we conceive 
ourselves to have been previously injured. The principles of 
retaliation, on this occasion, are apt to overcome our sense of 
these moral obligations, so beautifully illustrated by the dis- 
pensation of mercy: u Love your enemies; render not evil for 
evil, nor railing for railing." It is pitiful to see the boldness 
with which many will assume a right, they flatter themselves 
lawfully accrues to them, to indulge rancorous and malicious 
dispositions, and spiteful and inimical language, when they 
conceive that they were not originally in the fault. In such a 
case, they think that justice inspires them with the inclinations 
they feel, and that she will record their deeds as her objects 
of protection; and forget that our religion swears us to render 
no man evil for evil, but contrarywise blessing, There is 
perhaps no instance in which the frailty of human nature and 

its depravity have such irresistible proofs, as in that trait of 

23* 



266 



ON BROTHERLY LOVB. 



human character by which individuals, when the breath of an 
inadvertent or passionate expression touches them, turn in- 
stantly off from the paths of friendship, and stand aloof on 
the narrow pinnacle of their resentment — a source of grief to 
the reflecting, and an object of pitiful weakness in themselves. 

Is it asked where is an antidote to this evil? — It is in Love. 
Love makes us consider attentively the constitutional weak- 
ness of those around us, and will inspire us with charity to 
cover the multitude of their sins. Whilst it will neither 
encourage a wayward inclination, nor surrender the real rights 
of man, it will use every method to live at peace with all men, 
and to go and be reconciled to an adversary quickly. Charity 
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
dureth all things; charity never faileth. 

But, thirdly, This love displays itself in our practice. 
" Do to others as ye would they should do to you," is a prin- 
ciple of which the christian feels the force; and in clothing it 
with his practice, there are added to the pure dictates of justice 
those affections by which it appears that he rejoices not in 
iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. We see this character 
illustrated in the instance of that person who takes up the 
words of the prophet : " He hath showed thee, O man, what 
is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do 
justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" 
And having this for his christian coat of arms, proceeds 
through the world, meeting the objects of real compassion, 
and dispels their fears, relieves their wants, inspires them with 
hopes, and directs them to the goal of honor and virtue. I 
see this character in the compassionate and loving father, who 
says of his profligate and repentant son, " He was dead and is 
alive, he was lost and is found : bring forth the best robe and 
put it on him." J see it in the pastor who says , " My brethren, 
dearly beloved, and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand 
fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." I see it in the friend 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



267 



who knows me in prosperity, but sticketh closer than a brother 
in adversity. I see it in the husband who says to his spouse? 
" Thou art all fair, there is no spot in thee." I hear it in the 
spouse who exclaims, " My beloved is mine, and J am his ." I 
admire it — for it receives a brightening lustre from its move- 
ments — towards an adversary. The heathens of old tell us 
that he was a great example who would give every one his own ; 
and the Arabian hath long told us, trouble no man unneces- 
sarily, there are enow of thorns in the path of human life; but 
the christian is beheld ambitious to answer these heavenly ex- 
hortations: " Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do 
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully 
use you and persecute you." — Infidelity, you err egregiously in 
ascribing malice, war, and bloodshed, to our holy religion. 
What a happy world should we have, Oh ! enemies, Oh ! friends 
of Christianity, did christian principles prevail? Did a love 
any way proportioned to the love of God to us, pervade as the 
rays of the sun our world ? — Christianity thou art well calcu- 
lated to bring about that glorious state of things to which our 
faith, with great clearness from the prophecies of revelation, 
looks forward, but which is yet a dim view indeed in the gene- 
ral practice of the world — " When the sucking child shall play 
on the hole of the asp, and the wearied child shall put his hand 
on the cockatrice den, and they shall not hurt nor destroy in all 
God's holy mountain." 

My brethren, distant, distant indeed is this happy state of 
things from the present frame and appearance of the christian 
world. Many, instead of loving one another, are full of envy, 
murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, de- 
spiteful, proud, boasters; inventors of evil things, disobedient 
to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without 
natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. The works of the 
Spiiit, I remember, are these: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; but many 
do I see wallow in the lusts of the flesh, envyings, murders. 



268 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



drunkenness, revellings, and such like. — Little indeed is 
christians' love towards one another; for they make no 
suitable exertions to instruct the ignorant, to help the weak, 
to reclaim the vicious, to console the wounded spirit, to relieve 
the distressed; to cement human societies, to open the sources 
which contain their strength, or to arrange the circumstances 
and conveniencies which enrobe them with happiness and sta» 
bility. — In concluding this head of my method, 1 must ask, 
where are the prayers of christians for one another? — where 
is their meek and self-denied conversation? — where is their 
practice of love? — where, in a word, is that delicate, that ten- 
der remembrance of the words of our Saviour, " Whosoever 
shall give a cup of cold water to drink to one of these little 
ones only in the name of a disciple?" — for in our days a single 
word will alienate the heart, will embitter the tongue, and will 
purchase* years of distant coldness and dislike. We have 
reversed this brightest gem in the crown of the apostle, and 
presented its dark coating to the world. — " Let each esteem 
other better than themselves." 

But, my brethren, I would be persuaded better things of you, 
and things that accompany and adorn the salvation procured 
for your souls. I would be persuaded that henceforth at least 
you will have a work and labor of love which God will not 
forget. And to induce you to this, I proceed to our second 
head of method, which was to make you feel the truth, " that 
if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." 

First. Can we reflect upon the love of God to us, and not 
feel ourselves constrained to love one another? We read in 
profane authors of a friend at times laying down his life for his 
friend ; we read of sons interposing their own breasts between 
their fathers and the spear of the enemy; but though for good 
men some have even dared to die, the spirit and dimensions of 
love here are nothing in comparison to the height, the depth, 
the breadth, and the length, of the love of God to us. I wonder 
not that all heathen antiquity should admire the Grecian youths, 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



269 



whose confidence and friendship were so pure and unalloyed, that 
the one should propose, after the other was unjustly condemned to 
death, to guarantee his absence to see his friends, by submitting 
his own person to the chains of a prison, and to death itself, 
should the other not return before the period appointed for his 
execution ; and that this other should hasten over sea and land 
his return, to save his beloved friend from death by interposing 
his own neck to the hand of the executioner; and that, arriving 
at the very moment when the fatal blow was to be struck upon 
the substitute, he should cry out, " I am the man," and flee to 
sacrifice himself to reputed and inexorable justice, to save a life 
dear to him as his own soul. But pure as this ray of love 
appears, it is like the sickly beam of the smallest star to the 
radiance of the sun himself, compared to the love which we 
contemplate. When we were enemies, followers of the prince 
of darkness, clothed with his uniform, guilt, and depravity, and 
marching with a front of rebellion against the throne of heaven, 
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; — a Son 
sacrificed for strangers and enemies by wicked works ; an only 
begotten Son; a Son who dwelt in God's bosom from everlast- 
ing; who rejoiced always before him, and was doily bis delight; 
a Son who was the brightness of his Father's gi< y, and the 
express image of his person: this Son was wounded for our 
transgressions, was bruised for our iniquities, the c stisement 
of our peace was laid upon him, and by his strii es we are 
healed: this Son was cut off, but not for himself; this Son 
was made a curse for us, and evidenced it when he hung upon 
the accursed tree. Oh! Jesus, thou hast shown us an example 
of love ; — thou who art the Creator of all things, who upholdest 
them by the word of thy power, whom the angels adore and 
worship; for thou madest thyself of no reputation, and tookest 
upon thee the form of a servant, and wast found in the fashion 
of a man, and humblest thyself, and becamest obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. This is love, divine, trans* 
cendent love; love which never can be paralleled; but which 



270 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



certainly ought to make us feel the force of this language: 
" Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one an- 
other."— We should feel the force of these words : " The love of 
Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died 
for all, then were all dead; that henceforth we should not live 
unto ourselves, but unto God that loved us and gave himself 
for us.'" — Well surety, my brethren, does the apostle command 
us to " put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of 
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffer- 
ing: forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, even 
as Christ forgave us." Divinely does John reason, " Herein 
is love, not that we loved God, but that he first loved us, and 
sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God 
so loved us, we ought also to love one another." — It is lament- 
able that christians, who have such a transcendent example, 
feel so little the force of it; and that the river of this love flow- 
ing into the church of Christ does not diffuse itself over every 
object in it, till she appear altogether lovely. 

But, secondly, You must feel the force and life of this text as 
you mingle amongst its advantages. There is so much selfishness 
prevailing amongst professors of religion, that, in general, they 
stand aloof from the works of brotherly love; and so catch not 
the flame which warms and animates the society of the church 
in its purest character and liveliest colors. But. my brethren, 
what will not love effect? and are not all its objects sources of 
felicity? Attend to this principle as it prevailed in the minds 
of Christ's apostles. Great and momentous was the cause in 
which they were engaged, and feeble was their strength for its 
accomplishment; but they were a band of brothers, and the 
love which they bore to their cause and to one another, whilst 
it distilled a sweetness out of their sufferings, made them glori- 
ously triumphant. Often I reflect on the divine society of 
primitive christians, with all things common, the same cause, 
the same affections, the same providential sustenance of life, 
and admire its suitableness to Ihe prospects before it, and its 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



271 



resemblance to the general assembly and church of the first 
born in heaven, of which it was an emblem ; and contrast this 
state of the christian society with its less happy condition in 
after ages, I behold that the primitive christians and apostles 
knew what it was to love one another; that they stood not at a 
listless distance from that scene which animates, which grows, 
and which consolidates into that unity of life, whose voice is, 
" We are members one of another;" whose exertions may be 
persecuted, but not destroyed ; and whose blessed endeavors 
will fill empires with their most joyful fruits. I hear one saying 
to another, " I bear you record how greatly I long after you in 
the bowels of Christ; I will very gladly spend and be spent for 
you; and we are ready to impart to you, not the gospel of Christ 
only, but our own souls also.'" I see all waving the banner 
which angels bequeathed, and their affections unfurl, and bear 
along this vale of tears, " Glory to God in the highest, peace on 
earth, and good will towards men." 

But, christians, how has our gold become dim, our most fine 
gold changed 1 The building of living stones is rent and scat- 
tered in ruins, and daily there are some new stones falling off 
from their former connexions. The field of our Zion does not 
wave in that golden harvest where every ear is ripe, and vies 
with every other in its richness for the honor of their common 
soil. We have need to pray, " raise up the fallen down taber- 
nacle of David, and build it up as in the days of old ; pour out 
thy spirit upon us as the rain upon the mown grass, and as the 
showers that water the earth." — Let me lead you, my friends, 
into the great city where there are many active men, and only this 
one principle of love reigning, that you may behold its opera- 
tions, and catch its flame. Jerusalem lying in ruins, with the 
holy sepulchres of their fathers profaned, is visited by the sons 
of Judah, and whilst their enemies daily attack them, and 
would demolish their works, they build with the one hand, and 
defend themselves with the other, and Jerusalem thus arises 
out of its ashes, beautiful and girded with strength. Let me 



272 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



lead you into the army whose banner over them is love: how 
determined is their bravery, how lively are their evolutions, 
how impenetrable is their line, how sure is their victory! Let 
me lead you among the great wheels of this universe itself. This 
vast machine is the offspring of love; and except where a few 
have left their axle by divine permission, all you see is harmony 
— all is life — the most glorious issues forever appear, and shine 
the parents of new results. — But this sight may be too amazing. 
— I descend to make you feel the truth of our text by the ope- 
rations of love in your own hearts. You feel the love ye have 
for yourselves, — your life, your reputation, your favorable cir- 
cumstances, are all so dear to you, the world could not purchase 
them. What activity does not self-love inspire? what watch- 
fulness over character, what jealousy of honor? What would 
a man give in exchange for his soul? What would he give for 
his good name, better than precious ointment? — Is it thought 
that what is so advantageous to ourselves, and which we most 
certainly feel to be so, must sink into indifference in regard to 
our fellow men? No; those views and truths which form the 
basis of our intellectual worth, are common to us and them; 
that end which our individual existence is to promote, is the 
very end for which they were created • and this principle, the 
happy advantages of which we so much feel, and so necessarily 
feel, in our own instance, we should carry into operation in all 
human societies ; particularly in the society of the church of 
Christ; that we may stand and act amidst the claims of our 
common nature, and of our common christian privileges. 
Whether, saith the apostle, one member suffer all the members 
suffer with it, or one member be honored all the members 
rejoice with it. — Love, my brethren, inspired to sow the seeds 
of our holy religion among the nations of the earth • love pro- 
tects cities and nations ; love shines throughout God's universe, 
and love clothes Zion fair as the moon, clear as the sun, 
and terrible as an army with banners ; and I feel that he who 
is destitute of this principle can neither be a follower of the 



ON BROTHERLY LOVS, 



273 



example of the saints, nor a warm and genuine patriot of 
his nation, nor a reflector of a beam of the glory of this 
universe, nor that tender hand, that, in the desert of extreme 
poverty where the christian is often placed, will bear a 
cup of cold water, and show himself his disciple by crying, 
"I give this for the sake of Christ.'" Oh! my brethren, 
are we wells without water, clouds that are carried with a 
tempest; to whom the mist of darkness may be reserved forever? 

But, thirdly. The force of our text must be felt by contem- 
plating the miserable wildernesses of human nature where love 
does not reign. I visit the family of the poor and needy, where 
love and mutual kindness might be balm to every wound, and 
medicine to every disease; and the wretched creatures are 
effectually drying up the few remaining sources that might 
still keep some spots green in the great field of human expe- 
dients and expectations. Love having departed, they chide, 
they rail, they accuse, they criminate, till they weary them- 
selves into the silence of melancholy, which continues till 
exhausted nature is refreshed on its own peevish indulgences, 
to renew in endless revolutions the same most miserable con- 
duct. I enter into the families of the great, where affluence 
purchases the most desirable objects that are wafted over every 
sea, and where honor receives the homage of thousands of 
attendants ; and all appears splendor except the countenances 
of the proprietors and heirs, who are stung with furies, and 
tear each other in their rage. But I would particularly direct 
you here to the fruits of want of brotherly love in the church 
of Christ. Who would not weep over that blood of Abel that 
still crieth for vengeance? Who does not feel when Canaan's 
disrespect draws forth from his aged father the bitter curse, "a 
servant of servants shall he be to his brethren?" Who would 
not join the lamentations of Jeremiah when Jerusalem that 
was full of people sat solitary, and weepeth sore in the night, 
and her tears are on her cheek ; among all her lovers she hath 
none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt, treacherously 
with her, they aTe become her enemies? Who does not de- 
24 



274 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



plore the bitter enmity that so early shook the New Testament 
church, and like a mighty earthquake cleft it into sundry 
pieces? Who does not bewail the baleful effects of this prin- 
ciple as yet prostrating the unity of the church of Christ? — I 
need not call your attention unto the acrimony and violence 
that in general prevail among different denominations of chris- 
tians towards one another, to illustrate the subject. While the 
operations of an enlightened conscience has every encomium 
from me, the violent animosities which are handed down from 
father to son, and which usurp the place of our prayers and 
exertions for the return of those who differ from us, I cannot 
but deplore and reprobate. — I direct you to a single congrega- 
tion. I shall suppose it flourishing, and its prospects still 
increasing; I shall suppose the blessing of God eminently 
resting upon it — sinners converted, the saints edified and com- 
forted. This congregation is visited with a blast of ill-will 
and contention among its members. At first it touches slightly 
a few of the more prominent branches only; but in a little time 
it diffuseth itself over the whole, till all is withered and dead. 
In that place no praises of God are heard, no accents from the 
tongue of his servant, the pulpit is forsaken, the pews are 
empty. The Sabbath returns over God's world ; but it is not 
here the day of joy and gladness. All that pass by clap their 
hands at thee ; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter 
of Jerusalem, saying, " Is this the city that men call the per- 
fection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" — My brethren, 
is it not an unjust procedure to sell our petty passions, and the 
overflowings of ill humor, at the great expense of God's glory, 
and of the salvation of generations that are yet unborn? Where 
are the seven condlesticks emblematical of the seven Asiatic 
churches?— Their lamps are gone out, and these lands are in 
darkness. 

Christians, I look into the word of God, and I see the church 
delineated in perfection ; I raise my view to the present aspect 
of the horizon of the christian world, and I see prospects open- 
ing for the kingdom of Christ: I meditate on the glory of the 



ON BROTHEBLY LOVE. 



275 



latter days, and find that the Prince of peace shall reign upon 
earth;— and 1 ask how shall 1, and those that J should feed like 
a flock, rise above the rust that eats and consumes the beauty 
of the temple of God, and that threatens now to corrupt and gan- 
grene this congregation, and the answer is — add to our obser- 
vations the impression of the following passages from the mouth 
of the Holy Ghost. "Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle? 
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly 
and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart; 
he that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his 
neighbor, nor taketh up a report against his neighbor, and in 
whose eyes a vile person is contemned. Ye have heard it 
6aid of old time thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill 
shall be in danger of the judgment: but 1 say unto you, that 
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be m 
danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother, 
Raca, shall be in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall 
gay, thou fool, shall be in danger of Jfiell fire. This is a new 
commandment that I give unto you, that you love one another. 
Be of the same mind one towards another. Mind not high 
things, bat condescend to men of low estate; be not wise in 
your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for eviL 
Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be 
possible, as mueh as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place 
unto wratht for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay 
saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him, if 
he thirst give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals 
of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome 
evil with good. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and 
clamor, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all 
malice; and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiv- 
ing one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven 
you. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any 
comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowcte 



S76 



ON BROTHERLY LOVE. 



and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having 
the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing 
be done through strife or vainglory ; but in lowliness of mind 
let each esteem other better than themselves. — Now we exhort 
you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble 
minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. See 
that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow 
that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. — 
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is 
true in him and in you : because the darkness is past and the 
true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and 
hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that 
loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occa- 
sion of stumbling in him; but he that hateth his brother is in 
darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither 
he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. — And 
whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. 
Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in 
the Lord. Husbands love your wives, and be not bitter 
against them. Children, obey your parents in all things; 
for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke 
not your children to anger lest they be discouraged. Ser- 
vants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. 
Finally, be all of one mind, having compassion one of another: 
love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; not rendering evil 
for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing; 
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit 
a blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let 
him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they 
speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek 
peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the 
righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers : but the 
face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Amen. 



DISCOURSE XII. 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS TO THEIR CHILDREN. 

Peov. 22:6. Train up a child in the way he should go; and 
when he is old he will not depart from it 

My brethren, every man wishes to lay a solid foundation for 
the structure he is desirous to Taise, for his honor, his interest, 
and his permanent satisfaction. The builder removes from the 
foundation the unstable and deceptious earth, that would en- 
danger the safety of the superstructure, and rears on a chosen 
basis the fabric that proclaims his name and secures his accom- 
modations. The monarch who forms designs of extensive 
empire assiduously studies the art of war, and diffuses it 
through the immense numbers of his army, on which he builds 
his hopes of success. The sage patriot spends his days in 
devising systems of political law, that are to conduct the 
nations of the world to the palace of peace and impartial jus- 
tice. And the vast system of the material universe shows us 
with what infinite wisdom its omnipotent Creator hath com- 
bined its elementary principles, so as to effect that harmony of 
operation, and that unison of design, which bespeak so irre- 
sistibly the character of the great Parent of all. 

No earthly parent can object, that his child is an object of 

less moment than any of these we have presented in the analogy 

before his view. An infant, to be sure, in many respects has, 

before the natural eye of curiosity, little on which to support 

24* 



278 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS 



its prospects of celebrity, like the far-famed buildings and 
palaces of the monarchs of the world ; like the armies of vast 
kingdoms; like the more peaceful operations of systems that 
would plant tranquillity and prosperity, not amongst a few, but 
amongst the nations of the human race; and like the vast 
works of nature, the sun, moon, and stars, the world, and all 
that dwelleth in it: but to the view of reason and reflection 
the child of man is a more noble object than any of these. 
On his nurse's knee, with a smile towards her countenance, 
and a toy in his hand, he is the bud of an opening character 
that will immensely outstrip every object we have brought into 
the comparison. Properly instructed, it is himself who com- 
mands the noblest expressions of art to rise; who forms and 
commands empires ; who digests and applies the instruments of 
their felicity and prosperity; — and when the great fabric of 
nature shall have waxed old and vanished away, he will be 
beginning to expand in his strength, and to display fully his 
powers. The tender blossom of the tree in the early spring 
is subject to ruin by the breath of the wind, and the grasp of 
the smallest particle that floats in the frozen air; but it is train- 
ed up by the providential hand of the great Father of life, till it 
becomes a large tree, loaded with a profusion of fruit; which 
again springs up into other trees, till the effects of the tender 
bud cover immense regions of the earth : And in a far higher 
sense does the delicate scion of human nature spring up from 
insignificance unto incalculably glorious effects and immea- 
surable relations. 

That the wisest of men and most glorious of kings, there- 
fore; yea, that the Creator of all, should pass over directions 
necessary for the infancy of other concerns, and yet enjoin the 
duty in our text, is the most reasonable of choices. Says the 
inspired Solomon, who spake from the cedars of Lebanon to 
the ivy that begirts the wall, " Train up a child in the way he 
should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." 



TO THEIR CHILDREN. 



279 



Every command given by infinite wisdom has a reason for 
its promulgation, and the duty directed by it motives highly 
calculated to produce a compliance. The reason arranges 
the circumstances of the case, and would reprove and expel 
the unhappy occasions which required and warranted trie 
present command: the motives again lead into view the 
smiling advantages which primary integrity would have ob- 
tained, and which amendment alone can now possess. — Our 
thoughts, then, are principally to be directed to the reasons 
which have occasioned this divine particular revelation of 
duty, and to the encouragements which may create and pre- 
serve its discharge. 

Parents are addressed ; and however much they may flatter 
themselves of their love for their children; though they should 
think that they count their welfare dear to them as their own 
life; yet in their sinful negligence, or misapplication of the 
means of instruction, are we to look for the reasons of this 
precept. Parents, remember the charge which is committed to 
you; its qualities have no objects of comparison; the sun-, 
that bright luminary in heaven, darts its vivid and indestructi- 
ble rays through a vast expansion ; but immense as the region 
which he enlightens is, there is a darkness in boundless space 
beyond; but the candle you are now called to light will emit 
his radiance bounded by no space, and darting into eternity. 
Little, surely, do the guardians of youth reflect upon the trust 
which is committed to them ; else in the parlor immediately 
under the parental eye, and in the streets, where parents' 
negligence speaks through the voice of their children, so 
much immorality and impiety would not prevail. What do 
you think, for instance, of the name of God being blasphemed, 
his attributes tarnished, and his holy Sabbath profaned, by 
children pressed into the awful service by the tyranny of 
ignorance, and the woful blank in the book of their instruc- 
tion ? As sure as the word of God is true, as certain as the 
practice is unamiable and unprofitable, the idle blasphemer, 
and the impertinent transgressor of God's holy Sabbath, will, 



280 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS 



if grace prevent not, find prepared for him a doleful retribu- 
tion, — which will bear hard upon parents in the case of chil- 
dren; for the former are more properly accountable than the 
latter. In the mismanagement of an estate which is under 
guardians, the loss is sustained, not by those iri* whose effects 
the injury has immediately appeared , but by the administrator; 
and God, who is impartially just, will require, at the hands of 
the guardians of children, the vast estate of privileges and ad- 
vantages which he had provided for them, but which is squan- 
dered away. " And the Lord said to Samuel, behold I will 
do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that 
heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli 
all things which I have spoken against his house; when I begin 
I will make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his 
house forever, for the iniquity which he knoweth ; because 
his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not; 
and therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the 
iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor 
offering forever." — 1 Sam. 3: 1 1 — 15. 

But methinks I hear some parents, whose children are a 
heaviness and grief to them, plead that the refractoriness of 
youth has overcome them. The truth that man is bent to 
go astray from the womb, embitters in some degree the cup of 
delight in the hand of every parent; and in that of some much 
more than of others ; but before this can be pled by any 
with success, it must be obvious, that he - has used all the 
means which are provided for the attainment of this end. 
The means of accomplishing it are as diversified, as it is fre- 
quent to divide and neglect great part of them. Were the 
different dispositions of children carefully studied ; were there 
but half of the ingenuity employed in ascertaining the parti- 
cular springs of action in each that is often employed in 
forming an adaptation of instruments for the accomplishment 
of a trivial affair, and then a steady and vigorous application 
of them made, success could scarce fail to be secured. But 
kmentable to contemplate, the particular turn of the child 



TO THEIR CHILDREN. 



scarce ever lias a thought steadily directed towards it ; whilst 
of the combination of means to be employed, there is bestowed 
one scanty portion only. Some natter themselves that they 
are exerting their powers to the utmost for the formation of the 
characters of their children, when they invest them with the 
thin garment of a common education, which is only the 
groundwork of a temporal honorable subsistence, or when they 
have superadded to this a knowledge of some of the most 
obvious principles of religion. Attending to the relation of 
parents in general upon this subject, you hear them exultingly 
declare that such has been the education of their children ; and 
then either exclaiming against their abuse of their instructions, 
or applauding their improvements on them. We would not 
condemn any part of useful education, much less when under 
the eye of this inspired text of religious education : but, my 
brethren, all this may be attended to, and yet small proficiency 
made in the great art of training up a child in the way he 
should go. Can you expect to find the various subordinate 
parts of a machine turning regularly, when the principal wheel 
stands still ; or perhaps when through some malign power it is 
inclined to move backwards ? Well, in proportion to the wide 
embrace of the road of the child, comprehending both moral 
and religious principles, the parent should walk before and 
show the way. They are lame views of the education of an 
immortal and dependent soul, that will not endeavor to build 
the practice, the most estimable feature of the character of man, 
on every religious principle the knowledge of which is attained. 
But instead of this, how many parents are loose in their own 
morals, and profane in the circle of the other table of God's holy 
law, instead of pious and godly? Such monsters of absurdity 
meet us as pride themselves on communicating lessons of reli- 
gion and probity to their offspring, while they are found blas- 
pheming the name of God themselves, and ridiculing in their 
pestiferous mirth every thing that is sacred. But a man might 



282 



THE DUTY OT PARENTS 



as well spread poison, like the diseases from Pandora's box, on 
every walk of his garden, and scatter it over the branches of 
every tree, to be carried around in deadly effluvia by the wind ; 
and ask his friends to take an airing amongst its bowers, and 
flatter himself that he was actually thus to promote their 
health, as calculate on this method of education succeeding. 
Man in his infancy is like the tender flower; it will rear its 
head even in a barren soil, if frosty winds do not shrivel its 
leaves, nor pestilential seasons wither its stem : but if these 
visit it, all the care of art and spirit of vegetation cannot sup- 
port and preserve it. — A hint of comfort to the weak and helpless. 
— A child, through the blessing of God, is often marvellously 
trained up amidst almost a famine of the common means of edu 
cation ; but with the pestilential breath of a profane conversation, 
or an immoral practice, all, all the instructions which wisdom 
can devise, or precept can enjoin, will be of no avail. " Do men 
gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" 

But from this inapplicable and wicked character, I know 
many assure themselves they are entirely free; and I will say 
it with confidence, that I am persuaded many are so : but be- 
ware, my brethren, of the general principle from which we have 
shown you the pernicious influence of the practice you are so 
forward to condemn. Our general principle is, that example 
must go hand in hand with precept. Now, though you are not 
wicked, yet in one respect are not many of you negligent? 
If you do not put a scorpion alive into the hand of your chil- 
dren to bite them, yet do not ye, instead of bread, give them 
the cold stone of neglect? A principal part of the great sys- 
tem to which children are to be trained, is religious practice-. — 
the adoration and worship of God ; the habitual inclinations for 
regular returns to duty; and the lively spirit of true piety in 
them. It is not known what numbers of you may be deficient 
here; but the fact we have mentioned as of the most ruinous 
consequence in the education of youth, with respect to piety 



TO THEIR CHILDREN, 



283 



and religion, cannot be too earnestly recommended to your 
consciences for a personal application. Suppose, you who 
wish to teach your children the principles of religion, and this 
for the purpose that henceforth they should not serve sin, that 
you had prepared the fields and sown your seeds by the strictest 
rules of agriculture; but that the providence of God blesses 
the earth with no dew nor rain,- what would be the harvest you 
promise yourselves? Suppose that lectures for years, by the 
greatest master, were given on the most useful and noble arts; 
but that the teacher never took into his own hand, nor put into 
that of his students, the instruments of their operation; what 
sort of practical mechanics would such a seminary produce? 
In the same manner, it is equally absurd to look for the field of 
youth, with the seed only, without the enlivening dews and 
rains of religious communion seasonably and frequently be- 
stowed, bringing forth a ripe and matured character. It is 
equally absurd to look for a trained christian in the greatest 
and noblest art of living to God, without initiation into the 
practice of the art, as to look for the approved workman where 
we have directed you. — Consult the history of the human race, 
its impiety, its malice, and its revenge, and ask yourselves then 
if there were not great reasons for God, by the wisest of men, 
addressing parents in the language of our text , and for us still, 
from time to time, thus most seriously to review it. 

But as children, we plead, are more obedient to example 
than precept, we will not lead you, as some would, into the 
regions of terror, by supposing their upbraidings of you in a 
state of misery from which there is no release, in order to com- 
mand you to your duty : we will, in the spirit of that religion 
which says, " Suffer little children to come unto me, and for- 
bid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," now, in 
the second place, turn your attention to the motives which 
should lead you to this desirable and honorable employment. 

First. This is the means that will obtain your parental desires 
in regard to them. That children should be respected, happy, 



284 THE DUTY OF PARENTS 

and even good, is a wish which is unalienable from the heart of 
a parent. The heads of the family may be abandoned to every 
vice themselves, and may appear the offscourings of mankind ; 
but except where their own glaring iniquities will not permit 
them to speak their secret desires, or where the habits of the 
children have grown inveterate, under their too irresolute dis- 
cipline, parents will weep over the absence of the welfare and 
respect of their offspring, where they would find a thousand pert 
excuses for their own misdemeanors. — Good men consider 
themselves as either undone or comforted in this life, by the 
untoward or obedient conduct of their children. Hence says 
Solomon, " A wise son maketh a glad father, but a fro ward 
son is the sadness of his mother. A foolish son is a grief to 
his father, and bitterness to her that bare him." The agonies 
of David with his rebellious and wicked family, are a lively 
picture of the grief which preys upon the bowels of a parent. 
Well, would you desire your children to reflect an honor upon 
the name they bear, and to cheer your declining years with 
filial kindness and independent worth, consider that the mate- 
rials are in your hand, and that the attainment, through the 
promise and blessing of God, depends Upon your care and 
endeavors. To see a son growing into manhood, not in bodily 
dimensions only, but in the talents of the mind ; for a father to 
contemplate him as prepared for useful employment, in the 
state and in the church, scenes where the interest of man and 
the glory of God are strikingly promoted ; and above all, to 
behold him a star of benign influence in the domestic circle 
where he resides, and daily treading himself and endeavoring 
to lead others to eternal enjoyments, must be one of the live- 
liest and brightest of this world's possessions. A parent 
invested with these riches might challenge the treasures of 
kingdoms, however destitute of gold and silver, of food and 
raiment, he himself was, to produce such stores of wealth, 
either for the admiration of others or the felicity of himself. 
But on the other hand, to behold children wasting their 



TO THEIR CHILDREN. 



strength, and substance provided for them through years of 
hardship and toil ; to see them sink the honor of their family 
in disgrace, and entail perpetual ignominy upon their own 
characters; to augur their eternal destruction from the fore- 
bodings of a uniform vileness, must wring the hearts of 
parents with agonies which they alone can describe. For there 
own sakes, then, they should be abundantly careful, to train up 
a child in the way he should go, that when he is old he may nob 
depart from it. 

But secondly. They are to do this duty because of the great 
honor of such an employment. God their Creator could have 
formed children independent, for the obtainment of knowiedge y 
of their parents; and could have invested them with other 
means as the only ones for the direction of their practice : but 
as they bear the most intimate natural relation to them here, he 
did not deprive parents of what would be so truly honorable 
exercises for them. To the memory of those who have achieved 
great conquests, or acted in the hour of danger as the fathers of 
their country, there have been monuments raised, and marked 
with every expression of gratitude and every encomium. But 
as no enemies are so numerous, subtle, and powerful, as tbe 
temptations and passions of youth, the trophy which is erected 
for the memory of him who has subdued and foiled these, though 
in the eye of the world at large less brilliant, is yet both better 
founded and more substantial, than the laurels which crown the 
brow of the successful patriot and conqueror. In truth, mom 
assiduity, and even ingenuity of such a kind indeed as is more 
common amongst men, are necessary to rear children in the 
empire of virtue erected upon the ruins of prevalent vices and. 
immoralities, than are required to plant the standard of conquest 
and victory on the walls of an enemy. Never was a more suc- 
cessful warrior than David, King of Israel, in every engagement; 
but he who could rout the Philistines and Jebusites, and 
every enemy of the people of God, yet found himself weak and 
unsuccessful in vanquishing the temptations which surrounds! 
them, and the passions which impelled his own familv to their 
ruin and disgrace, — But though difficult, a diligent application 
25 



286 



THE DUTY OF PARENTS 



of the means cannot fail to attain the end. David, it is suspect- 
ed, was a more watchful shepherd over the flock of Israel, and a 
more attentive general to array their ranks, than a leader to the 
members of his own family. — Innumerable parents have beheld 
a living image of all their pious desires, liberal instructions^ 
candid advices, and commendable examples, shining in their 
trained and tutored children. Except where there are dangers 
to brave and difficulties to overcome, there is little glory to reap; 
and God, who knows what joy it must communicate to a parent 
to have been the principal instrument of rearing his son to all 
the ends of his existence, hath allotted to him, in this endearing 
connexion, opportunities for those endeavors that will procure 
such a revenue of honor 1o his success. What incalculable 
happiness in the state of estimation and reward hereafter, for 
parents to reflect, that though their children fell into their arms 
with inclinations to every vanity - that although the sparks of 
knowledge and piety they endeavored to kindle in them were 
likely to be extinguished by the floods of temptation; yet their 
perseverance, by the blessing of God, brought them through 
these seas of danger, and landed them their honorable and joyful 
companions in the land of everlasting life. You whose cir- 
cumstances are straitened, and whose qualifications make you 
timid, recollect what glory a conquest of your difficulties will 
diffuse over your character, and what a happiness your feeble 
exertions here will provide for you hereafter. Jn every other, 
but especially in this, can you say with truth, " For our light 
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Oh, what a gracious 
God, to make the most indispensable duty of man, and the most 
difficult to be properly performed, the most rich reward and 
roost copious source of enjoyment, both in this world and that 
which is to come. 

Bui thirdly. This command is given, because children look 
up to parents for their information and instruction. We have 
classed this idea amongst the motives, because the helplessness 
of infancy draws forth the deepest care under the attir© of 
parental affection and sympathy. The pleasure which the pareai 



TO THEIR -CHILDREN. 



Ms m rescuing his children from the devouring flames, must be 
«qual to the solicitude into which his mind was -plunged by "the 
magnitude and imminent nature of the danger which threatened 
them. Well, the consideration of children being so destitute of 
genuine principles of religious and moral conduct, and so 
devoid of inclinations for commendable practice, certainly will 
engage the thoughtful parent to very strenuous exertions. You 
may imagine what would be your feelings, did you see these 
pledges of your love and affection secluded from every earthly 
happiness in the miseries of a dungeon, or under the slavery of 
a cruel tyrant Tears would speak emphatically the affection 
you bear them, and the desire you have to relieve them. But is 
there any prison so truly deplorable, any tyranny so bitterly un- 
mixed, as that prison of ignorance, and that tyranny of unsub- 
dued, unruly passions, where are beheld the babes of the careless 
and the profane? No; if there is a principle implanted in the 
breast of man, that would prompt him to interpose in behalf of 
his son perishing in the devouring whirlpool, standing unsus- 
pected on the tottering precipice, or assailed by the poniard of 
the assassin, here is an opportunity for him to give full play to 
his sympathy. The child of his affections, unless properly 
trained, is, in the glory of his being, his morality, and his reli- 
gion, more apt to perish, than is any earthly danger to issue in 
its fatal effects. The bent of his own soul is to evil, and amid 
the innumerable snares which are laid for him, he is ready to fall 
a prey to the evil one. The imaginations of the heart of man 
are only evil, and that continually; and if the compass of this 
heart be not under the attractions of mild, generous, pointed, 
and prudent direction, it is not to be expected that the 
voyage of life will be happily made, or his landing felicitous 
hereafter. 

But fourthly and lastly. We would engage you to this duty, 
because of the confidence with which you may expect success, 
it is the Spirit of inspiration who here declares, that if a child 
be trained up in his youth in the way he should go, he will not 
when old depart from it: and whilst it is obvious that this pro- 
verb is founded on the general experience of mankind, and 
admits of some dishonorable exceptions, the certainty that it is 



268 



THE DUTY OP FAKKVT6 



founded, like every other proverb, on the general results in life, 
places before our view the most distinctly marked encourage- 
ment. In many instances, the most hazardous experiments and 
the most expensive are made by individuals, and the most labo- 
rious and daring expeditions are undertaken by states and 
nations, where the permanency of the advantages to be secured 
rests upon the most suspicious basis: but the stream of the 
child's life which is properly conducted, gathering strength as 
it flows, bears down every opposition, and will not be* diverted 
from its course. No ; guided by the light which has been infused 
into his mind, and guarded by the holiness of the character he 
has been ever accustomed to wear, the vices which prevail 
around him, and the irreligion which marks the most of the age 
he lives in, instead of surprising or beguiling him, as they do 
the unprepared and the defenceless, only stimulate and fan hi3 
virtues. " The path of. the just is as the shining light, which 
shineth more and more unto the perfect day." To be sure, the 
infirmities of human nature will discover themselves in all 
men ; and there may, in many instances, be in the conduct of 
manhood a lamentable desertion of the principles of youth ; but 
at a later period there may be a happy returning ; a declaration of 
repentance in these mournful words: "Father, I have sinned 
against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son ; make me as one of thy hired servants." In many 
instances has there been an imitation of that example, which is 
so much to our present purpose, and which is so generally 
known, of a great man that was stung through every scene of a 
loose life, by the maternal instructions and lessons of piety, 
which, in very early infancy, he had received, and who, at last, 
through the grace of God, has presented us with the example 
from which we must insist so much upon the efficacy of the 
doctrine taught in our text. Yes, the formation of an estimable 
character will weather the storms of temptation in general ; and 
when at any time the violence of them may carry him far out of 
his course, it will recover the distressed and miserable mariner 
to the latitudes along which he should bear. " Train up a child 
in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart 
from it." 



TO THT.ilt CHILDREN. 289 

Terrible must be the wickedness of some individuals; for 
though they have got the most eligible education, yet they have 
contemned its blessings, and live devoted to every kind of evil. 
They are the exceptions from the general truth mentioned in 
our text; and as they are wandering stars of such irregular 
orbits, the reprobation of mankind is fixed upon them, and 
their end can scarce fail to be the blackness of darkness for 
ever. How io w human nature sinks, when the son of a respecta- 
ble and religious father, who has been the centre of his care and 
hopes, withers in the bloom of life, and languishes out a de- 
graded existence, low as that of the brutes which perish ; whose 
breath, by his sensual indulgences, taints the air, and whose 
words, by his profanity, pollute the walk on which piety may 
meet him. Such reminds us of the reprobate Cain, of Esau, and 
Judas, the wandering star from the divine instructions of the 
great parent and teacher of mankind, and who perished to go 
to his place, On the other hand, what happiness does a y outh 
properly educated, and remaining under the blessings of this 
education, enjoy ? The sweets of knowledge, which are pure 
as the light of heaven, are his possession^ and when this 
knowledge is clothed with piety, he is fitted for every dispen- 
sation of providence and every station of life here, and for the 
eternal house itself of his heavenly Father. When I attend 
the remains of a holy youth to the bed of his long, repose, 
there is a swell of thought runs in my mind, and spreads itself 
like the circles on the tranquil lake, till lost in the indefinable 
distance — -a presage to me that lie has died as if an hundred 
years old, and that mortality is about, undoubtedly, in his in- 
stance, to be swallowed up of life. I return and repeat to the 
pious parents, that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and that 
this day he hath rewarded them for all their toil and labor about 
the little plant in his vineyard, which he hath now taken to 
grow on the borders of the river of life which issues out of 
the throne of God and of the Lamb, — The parents are tender, 
and their affections are moved by that cold earth which covers 
him. — I leave them with uttering, " This corruptible must put on 
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Amen* 

25* 



DISCOURSES XIII. 



ON LIGHT. 



G*;N. 1:3. God said, let there be light: and there was light. 

The beauty of scripture composition, my brethren, is seldom 
seen at first sight. Indeed, where there is order, it seems, to a 
superficial review, that there is confusion. This apparent con- 
fusion never appears greater than when light, the ornament of 
sll the works of God, is the subject. " And the life," says 
John, "was the light of men." What life? That which, 
according to him, existed long before it appeared. — For this 
evangelist presents us with a beautiful gradation which the 
"Spirit of God maintains in expressing the wisdom of his 
arrangements. Matthew, the first of the evangelists, rehearses 
the record of God respecting his Son, in whom is eternal life, 
as it tracas the genealogy of Christ according to the flesh to 
David, King of Israel; Luke carries it up to Adam, who was 
the son of God ; and John, who wrote the last of the evange- 
lists, passes on with the genealogy of the Messiah into eternity. 
u In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, 
and the word was God.'" And then as the joy of all the patri- 
archs and holy men of God, as Zacharias said, came to his 
temple, John, wrapt in the robe of the visions of the prophets, 
exclaimed, u the life," which was "in the beginning, is the light 
pfmen.'" 

The expression in our text is uncommonly sublime. It is, 
indeed, not like the roaring of thunder, nor the noise of the 
whirlwind- it is not like the earthquake, nor the foaming of the 



ON LIGHT. 



291 



cataract; it is not like the moving of the mountains from their 
places, nor the laying bare the foundations of the deep: but it 
is something far more grand. These are the sublime objects of 
untutored minds; sublime to the herdsman and shepherd, to the 
husbandman, and hunter with his bow and arrow in the forest : 
but light is the object of admiration and astonishment to all the 
inhabitants of the universe. When the young man, Elisha's 
companion, had his eyes opened, and saw all the mountain full 
of horses and chariots of fire, he saw a sight that was wonder- 
fully sublime; and were John's new Jerusalem, with its walls 
and streets of pure gold, and its gates of pearl, really to appear, 
it would be the grandest of objects made out of the most pre- 
cious materials which our earth affords: but it would be grand in 
a small chamber in the house of creation, and would not be the 
ornament and life of the whole. 

This light is first said, in this chapter, to have been created; 
and then several days afterwards, says Moses, " God made two 
great lights and placed them in the heavens; the greater light 
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night." This is 
by many supposed an inconsistent account. But it is simple 
and beautiful. In the materials of the very stones of our earth 
there is combined light, many of its strata yield it in the great- 
est splendor, and water when inflamed is a lamp of sparkling 
brightness. The air which we breathe in the darkest night has, 
asleep in its bosom , a vast possession of it, which, when the air is 
suddenly condensed, escapes from it like the lightning of heaven. 
Our earth then has the matter of light, like the matter of heat, 
diffused through all that abyss on which the Spirit of God was 
moving, when God said, "Let there be light, and it was." 
Besides, light disdains the humble abode of one particular 
habitation. The sun was formed and clothed with his robe of 
radiant light, and the moon on her surface, like our earth, 
received illumination from him ; but there are millions of suns 
which had each to get their portion; and as light, not for our 
little world, nor for our solar system, was, as we must believe, 
created by these words, " let there be light," but for the uni- 
verse; it must have been first formed, and then collected 



292 



ON LIGHT. 



afterwards to the various stations where in majesty it was to 
shine. 

I intend to show you, to-day, that light by its properties ele- 
vates the understanding of man, guides him in all the practice 
of life, illustrates the moral relations of the universe, and insi- 
nuates to man that in soul and body, as a creature of God, he 
is an immortal being. 

First. Light improves the understanding of man. The gar- 
den of Eden, had it not been for the light of the sun, would 
have been a poor habitation for man; to illuminate which even 
the flaming sword of the avenging angel might have been 
adopted in preference to the darkness which hung over it. 
There was not a flower in Eden but which was painted into every 
tint of beauty by the light of day. They are the rays of light 
which to our eye form the blue sky and arch the heavens; which 
gild over the clouds, and give them comeliness to variegate at 
times the face of the firmament; that the heavens may declare 
the glory of God, and the sky show forth his handy works. In 
the morning they are the rays of light that sit in ornaments of gold 
upon the mountain's brow, and fire the youthful imagination with 
those sensations which teach patriotism, and begin the attempts 
of poetry. " Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me 
from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of 
Shenir and Hermon, from the lions 1 dens and mountains of the 
leopards.' 1 Light is airy, and seemingly very unsubstantial, as 
in the rainbow; but it stretches itself in that sublime arch of 
heaven, that it may appear alone, and away from all gross earthly 
objects which we think have colors in themselves ; and that it 
may teach us that all the beauties which are spread over nature 
are from these rays that thus, in the covenant of God, are a 
pledge of his mercy that he will destroy our earth no more by 
water. 

It is light which enables us to command, with the greatest 
ease, the most extensive prospects on the surface cf our earth; 
that presents to us, in an instant of time, the extensive range of 
distant mountains, the valleys with their winding streams, their 
cities, their villages, and fertile fields. It is light which enables 



OK LIGHT. 



29S 



as to stretch our eye over the ocean, and qualifies the mariner, 
by a single glance, to return with the picture of an unknown 
country which accident may have cast within some miles of his 
course. It is light, in a word, which makes man an inhabitant 
of this world, and identifies him with its fields, its forests, its 
valleys, its hills, its seas, its islands, its continents; for, were not 
this element of our accommodation provided for us, our condition 
in this world, as respects itself, might justly be compared to the 
oyster in its shell, or the passion flower, which feels but has no 
range of enjoyment beyond itself. 

But light guides the eye of research in all the attainments of 
knowledge. Light not only touches the leaves of the flowers 
with their inimitable colorings, so that Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of them; but it leads the eye of the 
philosopher to these gentle offspring of nature, and enables him 
to observe the wisdom which is contained in the cup of every 
flower; and thus, while it makes him devout, it fills his pages 
with descriptions of the works of nature. But it guides him 
further; it enables him to assort the fruits of creation, and to 
observe what his experience teaches him is useful upon the soil, 
and to reject what encumbers it only. But it goes farther; it 
qualifies him to lay open the interior of the productions of nature, 
and apply to all the uses and ornaments of life the pine and the 
cedar wood, the oak, and every tree of the forest. But this is 
by no means the highest attainment of vision. Light submits to 
accommodate us, so that by a little artifice we may behold mil- 
lions of creatures in the family of our heavenly Father, which 
even our natural sight cannot perceive. Indeed, it is the eye of 
man that peoples creation with all the most delicate and gentle 
of the objects in the vegetable creation, and with those myriads 
of animal existences, the properties of which blindness could 
never ascertain, but which are such amazing evidences of the 
wisdom and beneficence of the glorious Creator. 

Connecting us with the myriads of living and organized exis- 
tences which here have members of the most beautiful symmetry 
and color, and are totally unknown to darkness; it is light, too, 
which enables us to walk through the vast regions of the fixed 



%94 ON LIGHT. 

stars, and to consider ourselves as inhabitants of the universe. 
How enlarged we feel ourselves, when by light aided by a little 
artificial contrivance, we examine the environs of the most dis- 
tant planets, see their retinue of magnificent attendants, and then 
pass on to observe those stars which, appearing to the naked eye 
as one body only, divide into brilliant companions at immeasura- 
ble distances from one another. How vast is the capacity of 
man when it is thus stretched ; and still he is conscious of a 
power to continue his observations at much greater removes 
from his little home. 

Well may it be said, God made man in his own image; for 
while this image, under the freshest appearance of its coloring, 
was indescribably faint; yet man is not like any of the lower 
species of creation. Light is, indeed, useful to them; but it 
cannot conduct them, by the beauties which it spreads before them, 
to seek entertainment from kindred beauties in other parts of our 
earth. Some things which they have seen they remember; but 
they cannot picture to themselves the beauties of the valleys and 
mountains of the world, nor travel over its surface to reap the 
pleasure of actual enjoyment. Their eye is, indeed, in some 
instances, better formed than that of man ; but their instincts 
are narrow and circumscribed; whereas man opens his eye and 
feeds on the prospect which is immediately before it, receives 
descriptions of other visible scenes from other men, is delighted 
with meditation upon them, leaves the earth, and pursues new 
enjoyments in the distant regions of unbounded space. God 
said let there be light ; and man, by means of it, connects him- 
self with the life that sports in the summer's ray, and with ihe 
furniture of the creation through an amazing chamber of her 
works. 

But secondly. Light directs the practice. Nothing through 
perhaps creation can be done without it. This may be the rea- 
son why it is so universally spread, and why no place is left abso- 
lutely without it. The stars are delicate lamps which perpetu- 
ally shine, and enclose us on all hands. Some creatures, 
indeed, are overpowered by the effulgence of day ; but the night 
has beams sufficient for them. This arrangement of the Creator 



ON LIGHT. 



295 



may be intended to point out to the least observant of man 
kind, how easily God can suit, in the most remote comers of 
a solar system, his creatures to the condition of their habitation. 
— Yes, some creatures can live only in the purest emission of the 
summer's rays, — indicative to us of the happy regions of those 
globes which move near to the sun; and others retire into the 
cool shade and the caves of the earth till the chill of our 
evenings, when they can enter on the fatigues of their labor— 
a proof how delightful may be those habitations which lie far 
beyond us. 

Indeed, the economy of our world, as connected with light ? 
illustrates in some respects to us the expedients which must 
render delightful the most apparently dreary suburbs of any 
system. As light is absolutely necessary .to the business of 
life, so many creatures here have the power of laying up a trea- 
sure of it, and of drawing it forth only when it is in demand. 
Indeed the depths of the plans of providence in this respect am 
astonishing. We are delighted with the green color of the sea r - 
but we little think that the rest of the rays are absorbed by those 7 
invisible animalculas, which fill every drop of the water where it 
has this color, and that support the larger inhabitants of the deep, 
and supply them with that light which those that live at the 
bottom of the abyss can bring to play around their path at their 
pleasure. The very vegetable creation cannot carry on any pro- 
cess to advantage, without both the heat and the light of the sun. 
Throughout all existences that grow on our earth, light seems 
the source of their joy. It gives health and vigor to every flower 
and plant, and even the very shells of the fish of the sea seem 
greedily to absorb it,- as if without it no enjoyment could 
take place. When the heathen philosopher passed a high 
encomium on Moses for the sublime conception in our text ? he 
knew little of the reasons which might have been assigned for 
his observation; but modern science has supplied the deficiency; 
and it may be truly said, that as God dwells in light inacces- 
sible and full of glory; so all creatures that have the life 
even of organization are, for their joy, absolutely dependent 
upon it. 



296 



ON LIGHT. 



I cannot run over the departments of the business of human 
life to exemplify its utility to man. Look at his eye and his 
implements, and you will at once see how necessarily, in all 
instances, these are connected together. Life itself is not more 
necessary in the agent than vision in the eye. I direct you to 
the confidence which every step betokens, and the ease and 
expedition with which it is taken; and I direct you to the diffi- 
culties of darkness. " Come near me, my son, that I may feel 
whether you are my very son Esau : and he said, the voice is 
the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. — 
Arise, my father, and eat of my venison. Who art thou? I 
am thy son Esau. And he trembled with an exceeding great 
trembling, and he said, who is he, where is he, who hath come, 
and with subtlety hath taken away thy blessing?" I direct you 
to the joy of the business of life. The morning sun gladdens 
creation ; the firmament is rilled with music ; the labor of the 
day increases; but man wipes from his brow the sweat, and 
throws a glance, forgotten indeed the next moment, over the 
surrounding scenes of nature, and gathers a refreshment 
sweeter than a mere imagination bred in darkness could evei 
present. 

But light would have availed nothing to the business of life, 
separated from the end for which here it was prepared. Before 
the divine mind, when God said, i( let there be light, 1 ' the sub- 
stance and forms of all eyes, for air, earth, and water, stood in- 
fallibly connected with the realities to be prepared. How admi- 
rable an organ is the eye of man! There may be as much 
wisdom indeed in the construction of the ear, and of the organ 
of taste or smell ; yea, in the formation of a hair of the head ; 
but the eye expresses its wisdom more openly to our capacity. 
Our eye is the most delicate of all our members, and yet the rays 
of light never injure nor weary it; and with a rapidity little infe- 
rior to the velocity of light itself, it changes its form for every 
new point of the scene which it wishes to survey. Above all 
things in our constitution that is inexpressibly wonderful, this of 
the accommodation of our vision according to the distance of 
©very object proclaims, to the few people who have adverted to 



ON LIGHT. 



297 



it, the delicacy of the divine wisdom, and the minuteness of its 
attention to our happiness in our situation. The labor of the 
eye, too, in turning in its socket, is always gone through with 
so much ease, that though it traverses with its axis a longer 
journey every day, than would weary any other member of our 
frame, it never since creation uttered a complaint. 

It is with propriety, my christian brethren, that the heathen, 
who lost sight of the intellectual and moral beauties of creation, 
are represented as a people who sit in darkness and have no 
light; and that revelation, the word of divine knowledge, is 
always presented to us as the light of the world. Where 
there is no vision, the people and all the business of life perish, 
even in a literal point of view. It is often by critics -quoted as 
a remarkably heroic and courageous expression of one of 
Homer's heroes, who, when stopped in the heat of the fight' by 
impracticable darkness, prayed to Jupiter to give light, if he 
should then slay him when it would direct his steps. Milton's 
lamentation over the loss of his sight is by all admired as one of 
the most natural and pathetic passages to be found in any 
composition ; but to a philosophical mind the inimitably fine 
scenes in " Paradise Lost" show that the writer of them, after 
blindness had seized him, could find no enjoyments but in re- 
calling and contemplating those beauties, the elements of which 
had entered by the eye. Of all productions in poetry, those 
which have proceeded from men who by age have lost their 
sight, are the most admirable: but the reason of this is very 
obvious; present objects of interest are very scantily presented 
to them; and the past objects of delight are pursued, caught, 
new moulded, and formed into the brightest, attitudes. Some of 
these productions are, therefore, airy and bright; the fancy of 
path having clothed the knowledge of experience and of age: 
but when they touch on their present feelings and their rela- 
tions to the universe, their strains are like the' sound of the 
birds that sing by night, melancholy and doleful; and though 
some of the strains may be sweet, these are like the notes of 
26 



ON LIGHT. 



the nightingale, that seem to spring from a perpetual fountain 
of sorrow. 

But thirdly. Light is indicative of the character of the moral 
government of the universe. We have, from a minute exami- 
nation of them, many evidences, from other things,. of the cha- 
racter of the divine government in our world. The fact that 
the proportion of original elements in all compound substances 
of the same nature, are always invariably the same; that the 
air never varies in the proportion of the elements which com- 
pose it; that water never in its composition will admit one 
particle more or less at one time than at another; that crystals 
zations of the same substance are invariably under the same 
angle, and in the same proportions; that the forms of the 
organs of plants never deviated from their order since creation 7 
nor is even a color of their leaf changed ; that every thing 
brings forth its kind in perfection of parts and organs — these 
things clearly show that there is a plan of perfection connected 
with the natural government of the world; and also that if any 
of God's creatures here be under a moral law proceeding from 
the same origin, it must have a definite perfection, as well as 
all other emanations from the divine councils. This is the 
very truth which the sense of religion in all men appears 
weakly to have laid hold of; for sacrifices of expiation have 
been offered in all places and ages ; but the view of it was y 
like the rest of their knowledge of divine things, extremely 
imperfect among the heathen nations. But these words, " the 
Judge of all the earth will do right," receive from the light of 
modern science a strictness and an inflexibility of interpretation 
which are grand and majestic, Science has passed into every 
chamber of the divine works; and all things are definite and 
unchangeable in the principles which form their nature and 
regulate their character. There is one common law to every 
existence of the same species; and this is as permanent as the 
order of the universe, and cannot be altered without the anni- 
hilation of a species of being. 



ON LIGHT. 



It may make man stand amazed at the accumulation of 
guilt which thus the order of the universe brings against him 
for his transgressions; but it is the very view of the subject the 
scriptures present To a christian, whose faith is founded on 
the immediate communications of revelation, the view we have 
exhibited has nothing alarming. He may not have so minutely 
analyzed the mind of the great and universal Governor as I 
have attempted to do; but his belief is not in the least differ- 
ent. — Is it said that we know nothing of the perfection of the 
divine works, unless in this small corner of them where we 
reside? The rays of light, my brethren, convey a knowledge 
to us of the order of the heavens. The stars all shine invari- 
ably brightly, or change by some known law which adds only 
to the wisdom of the economy by which they are governed, 
There is the power of attraction which binds our solar system 
into an order, which in some degree we can estimate ; and this 
order is never disturbed, any more than the wisdom of the 
Maker of all could find any difficulty in adjusting that admi- 
rably perfect plan which from his will the system exemplifies. 

But it is light itself that is the universal herald of the abso- 
lute perfection of the creation. It travels through all space, 
and it has no variety in any portion of its journey .different from 
what it had in any other- It moves universally in the same 
•straight lines when left to itself, and with the same velocity. 
And the rays which come from the most distant stars are 
affected, in all instances, precisely in the same manner as is the 
light of our sun. The light of a star which is invisible entirely 
to the naked eye, on entering our atmosphere, pays an equal 
<duty of refraction with a ray from the moon or sun, or any 
other heavenly body. Its progress, as learned from its aber- 
-ration, is precisely with the same rapidity ; and it disdains 
equally to be a messenger to us of any thing but brightness on 
*every beam, and order in every movement. When the moon 

rises from the bosom of the ocean, her light plays on the guar- 



300 



01% LIGHT. 



face of every wave, and so does the light of I he most distant 
and smallest star, to show that this inhabitant of the universe 
has unchangeable laws of order, to make known every where to 
his intelligent creatures, That he who dwells in light inaccessi- 
ble and full of glory, is absolutely perfect; and this, too, as his 
authority stands over those rational existences who were origi- 
nally created with powers to examine and estimate this universal 
state of things. — My God, I thank thee that Christ said, " I 
am the light of the world for with this night of sin, there is a 
horror and a darkness which, from all the images of divine 
perfection in heaven and in earth, bear in upon the sinner j and 
how awful must be the naked arm of justice, when it strikes to 
realize the truth which is thus sketched before us in all the 
works of God. 

In the plan of salvation, my brethren, by Christ, the law of 
God may be supposed as perfect as are the laws which he has 
assigned to light, not a particle of which since creation ever 
erred ; yet we are safe. Yea, were not the moral law of God 
equally inflexible in its majesty, as the laws of nature are in 
their order, the whole of our religion would be a fabric without 
a principle to cement its parts. But they are in an error, deeply 
in an error, who illustrate the beauty of the crown of heaven, 
and the original lines of order among the intelligences of this 
universe, by sometimes one vague view, and sometimes another; 
and who think that the sinner returns back to his God, like a 
child who is wearied of its waywardness to his father. No, the 
angels might desire to look into the plan of our restoration; 
for they have some knowledge of the perfection of this building 
of creation; and they will see, that high as its order is, there 
is no infringement of it as we return to God. The wages of 
sin is death: its cold hand was felt; justice spared not; but 
out of the state of the dead, came life and immortality to light. 
Christ, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world, 
had his countenance like the sun, and his raiment like the light 



301 



<of the suit; and a voice comes to us from heaven, as Moses and 
Elias talked about his decease, saying, M This is my beloved 
Son in whom £ am well pleased. 11 

But lastly. Light insinuates to man that in soul and body 
he is an immortal being. When we look at the lower species 
of the creation, they are as devoid as the rocks of the mountain 
of any turn for speculation on any object which they see. They 
often exhibit considerable talent and address in arranging tbek 
habitations, in providing their food, m attacking their enemies', 
and in lying in ambush to -make them their prey. Never, how- 
ever, has an individual of them brought forward the least 
feature of that philosophy which we recognize in the eye of 
every infant; and which, while all appetite and selfishness are 
at a distance, commences an inquiry into the nature of sur- 
rounding objects, and the relations of their component parts 
Every creature of the lower species of creation has the bounds 
of its habitation circumscribed by a line on the earth which k 
never far distant from it ; and beyond this all the objects which 
the Creator could make and ornament have no relations which 
interest it: The natures of these creatures never identify them 
with the a Diverse, and fill their souls with the images of beauty 
and order from every thing that is great -or small Their «ye 
is an organ of utility indispensable to theirexistence; but when 
at guides them to the pasture, or to the stream, to the prey, or 
to the danger which threatens existence, it has accomplished 
Its highest attainments.. 

But man never appears before the door of his habitation but 
you perceive that, by means of the rays of light, his mind as 
travelling over scenes, which, though often viewed, may yet be 
supposed to have something to please his curiosity. When 1he 
fields have any thing uncommon on them 9 every man \vould 
snake the whole prospect his own, fey the eager curiosity which 
he summons up upon it, and by the examination to which he 
subjects it. Should the heavens put on a new array*, towards 
them he directs an equal interest. The contemplation of mm 

•26* 



302 



OS LIGHT. 



the azure canopy of the sky often begets in him a tranquillity 
as indefinable as is the boundary of our vision, and as rich in 
enjoyment as imagination can provide. Man by the proper- 
ties of his mind, and the faculty of vision, is not a local insu- 
lar, od existence; but connects himself . with all God's works 
that are around him, and cultivates an acquaintance, intimate 
and deep, with the most transitory or permanent on the earth 01 
in the heavens over it. Yea, he starts orT to the most distant 
of the visible works of God, and cultivates with more joy an 
acquaintance with them, than he does with the familiar envi- 
rons of his habitation. Man is an inhabitant even here of a 
vast part of the possessions of the universe. 

Now, my brethren, while not a particle of matter, as far as 
we know, is annihilated, while the rays of light, feeble as they 
are, all yet play throughout boundless space, are we to sup- 
pose that the mind of man, that existence which travels 
throughout a great part of the works of God, and examines 
them as it passes along, is just as the leaf of the grass, or that 
creature which can think of nothing but feeding upon it? No, 
I hold that the human mind has a testimony from every star, 
and the more distant the clearer, that it is an heir to the enjoy- 
ments which the permanency of the heavenly luminaries pre- 
sents. God could have given us more light by situating one of 
the stars a little nearer to us, and making it move so as to rise 
when the sun set, and thus hide as the sun does all the rest 
from our view; but he has hung out to us the splendors of crea- 
tion > and arranged them so as to invite our intelligence and 
numbers among them. 

But it may be said we leave every thing here by death ; and 
why not all things every where else ?~W hen the building is 
great and full of chambers, the members of the family are not 
kept eternally in one little corner. They walk throughout the 
hdlls and apartments, and occupy what they see to be all suita- 
ble d-id delightful. 



ON LIGHT. 



303 



But it may be said, my brethren, that this reasoning though 
splendid and specious, is yet overturned by one consideration, 
level to our capacity, and easily estimated. Men, it may be 
said, cannot be immortal, else these vast views to which they are 
heirs, the works of God, and all which he has provided for 
us of a still more exalted character nearer to himself, would 
not be put out of view by indifference, or be trodden upon by 
that madness of impiety which we see every where so preva- 
lent. — I am not attempting to prove the immortality of man 
from his conduct. I grant that the gold of his creation has be- 
come dim; I am proving it from the creation of God, and from 
that relation to it, which his intellectual nature still yet pre- 
sents. 

Were I to prove it any way connected with his moral habits 
I would first recall the truth that the idea of morality connects 
immediately with the throne of heaven ; and then 1 would di- 
rect to the judgments where a fire goeth before God and burn- 
etii up round about him. Yes, 1 would direct to the flaming 
sword, that, in respect to the sinner, guards the tree of life ; I 
would direct to the top of Sinai and the terror of its flames ; I 
would direct to the fire which men kept perpetually burning 
as an emblem of justice to consume the sacrifice,- and I would 
! repeat the prophecy, that the Lord shall be revealed from hea- 
ven, in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them who know not 
God, and who believe not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. 

But light affords us also an evidence for the resurrection of 
the body. The ancients thought meanly of matter, and spake 
| of it as the prison of the soul. But the light of modern science 
' shows infinite space filled with it, and the wisdom of Deity 
unfolded in all its forms. The book of creation is written on 
material leaves; and no creature which we see, can perceive 
any thing out of himself but by the intervention of it. It is 
the soul which perceives; but the consciousness of its own 



304 



ON LIGHT. 



operations is not more certain, than are the intimations of the 
senses. — We do not say that the angels have bodies. On the 
other hand, their spiritual nature is an evidence that our souls 
may exist by themselves with powers of enjoyment, before the 
resurrection. But we say, that the angels never visit our 
world without putting on a form like to a friend or a foe. 
They eat with Abraham; Manoah sees their wonderful opera- 
tions; they speak to Zacharias; they roll back the stone from 
the sepulchre of our Saviour and sit upon it; and they say, ye 
men of Galilee why stand ye here gazing into heaven, this 
same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so 
come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. — 
These angels no doubt visit other parts of the creation, and 
accommodate themselves to the material forms and organs of 
their inhabitants. — Spiritual existences as they are, we do not 
suppose, that it is for their own enjoyment, that they put on 
the material forms in which they appear. This is to befriend 
those to whom they are sent. — But, my brethren, since crea- 
tion in its material parts is so vast and magnificent, since the 
angels of heaven robe themselves at times in material cover- 
ings, and since we can form no conception how matter can be 
perceived, and its magnitude and beauties be properly estima- 
ted, but by material organs; — if our souls be immortal, the 
union of them to what is a constituent part of our nature here, 
would only prepare us for being companions to the works of 
our creator as we see them at present existing, and as in the 
new heavens and the new earth they will continue for ever to 
exist. The works of God are spirit and matter; the one is 
powerful to examine and comprehend : and the other is spread 
every where throughout boundless space with its beauties and 
marks of divine wisdom to employ us by endless variety 
through an endless duration. 

There may be some tie which our Maker will have to break 
to set us loose from our present abode. But it is easy to ima- 
gine this. Light is incident upon the earth, but it is not at- 



ON LIGHT. 



305 



tracted by it; nor is it by a single body of the universe. It 
leaves the sun, and steps off to the most distant of the planets; 
but it returns to us with the utmost ease, and with the same 
velocity. The Creator, to the glorious bodies of the saints, 
has only to communicate the independence which light pos- 
sesses in respect to attraction, its incorruptibility in all situa- 
tions, and its speed on its journey, to prepare them for occupy- 
ing the whole building of creation, and throughout eternity for 
making all his works to praise him. 

What a beautiful passage is that in the nineteenth chapter 
of Job! Job says that God hung our earth upon nothing; 
that he bringeth forth Arcturus with his sons , and he speaks 
of Orion and Pleiades and the chambers of the south. — Having 
exclaimed, Oh! that my words were now written in a book, 
that they were engraven with an iron pen and lead in the rock 
for ever, he adds, in the passage referred to, For I know that 
my Redeemer liveth, and though after my skin worms destroy 
this my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom mine eyes 
shall behold and not another. Job's deep distress was like the 
picture of our sinful world, and his body that was scraped with 
a potsherd, was a fit emblem of the realization of these words 
of his, "I have said to corruption thou art my father, and to 
the worm thou art my sister and my mother;'" but this sigh of 
faith, is like the light of God's creation; — this may be absorb- 
ed by all substances, but it has in itself a principle of inde- 
structive purity, and always clears off from them in its original 
brightness; so Job shakes off from him in these words, every 
thing that is vile and corrupting, and stands arrayed, as on the 
last day, ready to meet that Judge who in his character pre- 
sents that absolute perfection which is the intellectual light of 
the whole creation. 

That which thou sowest, says Paul, is not quickened except 
it die. — Parents you may sow in death your children, children 
you may sow to corruption your parents : but why those tears ? 
Look at the field. The seed cannot be barren. The blessing 



306 



ON LIGHT. 



of heaven is upon it. That which is sown in weakness shall 
be raised in power; that which is sown a natural body shall be 
raised a spiritual body ; that which is sown in corruption shall 
be raised in incorruption ; and that which is sown in dishonor 
shall be raised in glory. 

My brethren, what hopes the religion of Christ gives'. Man 
comes forth as a flower and is cut down; but all things change ; 
the light was a while without a permanent abode; but was 
then gathered into a glorious habitation; so man, redeemed to 
his orignal perfection, may wander about for a little among the 
toils and the tombs of this earth; but at last he will be gathered 
to an eternal home, to shine as those stars in the firmament for 
ever and ever. — For this corruptible must put on incorruption ; 
and this mortal must put on immortality. Oh! infidels why 
rob us of these hopes ? Does not the Creator of the universe 
connect us with it far and wide ; and is he, as soon as we begin 
to open the eye of enjoyment, to dash his children from the 
breast which he has hung out so rich and so desirable? Chris- 
tian this cannot be. For we have instructions beyond the 
beauties of creation.— When this corruptible shall have put on 
incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then 
shall be brought to pass, the saying that is written, Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory. — Oh ' dea*h where is thy sting, oh ! grave 
where is thy victory ! Thanks be to God who giveth us the 
victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. — The day spring from 
on high hath visited us— the light of the new creation shines.— 
Amen. 



DISCOURSE XIV, 



THE CONVERSION OF THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



Acts 8:39, And he went on his way rejoicing. 

There are, my brethren, particular providential occurrences 
in one's life which, though not in the least anticipated, are the 
sole spring of his power, aggrandizement, or happiness. Saul 
had not the slenderest expectation, when in rural simplicity, he 
went in search of his father's asses, that before his return a 
prophet of the Lord should anoint him king of Israel. Joseph, 
persecuted by his brethren, and sold into Egypt where he ex- 
perienced treachery and imprisonment, had not himself any 
knowledge or belief, that the Lord was doing these things, that 
he might preserve Jacob a posterity upon the earth, and save 
lives by a great deliverance. The disciples of our Saviour said 
in despair of its being the case, we thought that this was he who 
should have redeemed Israel, and it was the very event which 
interpreted to them the whole of the sacred oracles^ and started 
them in that honorable cause for which they took joyfully the 
spoiling of their goods. 

The Ethiopian eunuch, whose exultation is the subject of our 
discourse, met with an equally unexpected but happy providen- 
tial occurrence in his behalf. This minister of Candace, queen 
of Ethiopia, went to Jerusalem for to worship. The light how- 
ever which he received from the interpreters of (he Jewish law 
and prophets, threw but little information upon the true nature 
of the ordinances on which he attended, or the scriptures, which 



308 



THE CONVERSION OF THE 



to the Jews themselves, as well as all their proselytes, were the 
rule and spirit of true and undented religion. Returning from 
his religious performances this man read Isaiah the prophet, and 
in that particular place of him too, which more clearly than ail 
the rest explained the intention and spirit of the Jewish institu- 
tions, and yet he understood not what he read. Verse 29. And 
the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this cha- 
riot, and Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the pro- 
phet Isaiah, and said, understandest thou what thou readest? 
and he said how can I except some man guide me. Poor had 
been the instructions of the Jewish teachers, else this man who 
was of those distinguished talents that advanced him to the 
charge of all the affairs of his mistress' kingdom, and who 
peruses the sacred scriptures as he journeys along in his chariot, 
would have had some conjectures at least about the true import 
of this peculiar and striking passage of Isaiah. But his lines 
are falling to him in pleasant places above his expectation. 
That unanticipated and striking occurrence to which we allu- 
ded, and which was the great spring of joy to all his future life, 
now takes place. — It is added, "and he desired Philip that he 
would come up, and sit with him.' 1 And Philip, it is said, 
verse 35, " opened his mouth and began at the same scripture, 
and preached unto him Jesus:" — Jesus whom this prophetical 
passage led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before 
her shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth; who wa3 
wounded for our transgressions, was bruised for our iniquities, 
the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him, and by his 
stripes we are healed. — -The light which was cast upon the sub- 
ject was irresistible: the eunuch is converted; the greatest and 
most blessed change that can happen to mortal man. Verse 36. 
"And as they went on their way they came unto a certain wa- 
ter, and the eunuch said, see, here is water, what doth hinder 
me to be baptised? and Philip said, if thou believes! with all 
thine heart, thou may est; and he answered and said, I believe 
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded 
the chariot to stand still ; and they went down into the water, 
both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptised him. And when 



ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



309 



they were come up out of the water, the spirit caught away 
Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his 
way rejoicing." 

What we intend, in the further prosecution of this discourse, 
shall be, in the first place, to present before you the causes of 
the rejoicing of this convert; secondly, we will inquire how 
such an effect could be so suddenly produced on him; and 
thirdly, we will ascertain why this event is so particularly men- 
tioned. 

And no wonder that the eunuch went on his way rejoicing; 
for, in the first place, he now received a key to the prophecies 
contained in what he esteemed the word of God. When an 
honest man believes that God is speaking to him, if he cannot 
understand what has been communicated, he is filled with deep 
anxiety; and his relief from it must fill his mind with a propor- 
tional joy. But we see from a preceding part of this chapter, 
that the eunuch was equally ignorant of as desirous to know the 
true import of one of the most remarkable and singular predic- 
tions of revelation. The Jews had sought the fulfilment of this 
prophecy in the character of Jeremiah, and several other illustri- 
ous sufferers: yea, they had feigned two Messiahs in order to 
answer to the description of power and distress ; but at the pe- 
riod of the commencement of the New Testament worship, they 
appear to have lost its true and legitimate import. And of many 
of the rest of the predictions of revelation were they, and all their 
disciples, equally ignorant : in particular of all those which delinea - 
ted the person and work of the great Mystery of Godliness, God 
manifested in the flesh. To find a meaning to these passages, " he 
shall make his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his 
death; his flesh shall rest in hope, and his soul shall not be left 
in hell; unto us a son is given, and a child is born, and the gov- 
ernment shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be call- 
ed Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting 
Father, and the Prince of Peace; Messiah shall be cut off, but 
not for himself; 1 ' necessitates an interpreter to believe in Jesus 
of Nazareth, and to bring him to the explication of what other- 
wise cannot be resolved. Indeed to him gave all the law and 
27 



310 



THE CONVERSION OF 



the prophets witness. What is the meaning of all those illustri- 
ous predictions which describe the typical nature of the land of 
Canaan, and promise it to the seed of Jacob; of those which 
define and bewail the captivity of Judah, and secure her subse- 
quent restoration; of those which tell us of the rise and fall of 
empires ; if they derive not to themselves an importance from 
the great event of the redemption of mankind ; for which any other 
events could become worthy of a particular divine record ? The 
Saviour of the world is the true key to the prophecies. In his 
incarnation, miraculous birth, mean life, accursed death, and 
glorious resurrection from the dead, many of them have met 
with their literal and only interpretation: and even the more 
distant and scattered among the affairs of the world, receive 
their great value, for which they must be recorded by God, from 
him in whom all the promises and predictions of revelation are 
yea and amen. No wonder then, when the genuine key was 
put into his hand, that the Ethiopian, the eunuch of great au- 
thority, should proceed on his way rejoicing. Having the 
charge of all her treasures this minister of queen Candace could 
no doubt open many a door, and unlock many a bolt that admitted 
to the most valuable of earthly concerns, of precious jewels and 
gold with which that court abounded. But this key lets him 
into secrets which the topaz of Ethiopia could not equal, neither 
could they be valued with pure gold. He saw here that pearl of 
great price, in order to buy which, a man would with advantage, 
yea even a king, sell every other concern. 

But we observe, secondly, That he went on his way rejoicing, 
because he had found a rational interpretation to all the institu- 
tions of that religion on which he attended. The supporters of 
superstition flatter themselves that every part of their ritual has 
a significancy, and every feature of their practice a religious 
meaning : otherwise they could not content themselves in sup- 
porting often a burdensome and an expensive system of ceremo- 
nies. There was in all the heathen devotees an imagination 
which pleased them with their external forms of worship, and 
•which was equally rooted and easy of furious agitation, with that 
which stimulated the Ephesians to cry out "great is Diana of 



THE ETHIOPIAN EtTNUCH. 



311 



the Ephesians." The Jews' religious institutions were of divine 
origin, and had actually the most pointed import ; every type 
might find a principal, every ceremony a substance, and every 
figure a reality; but at the commencement of the christian dis- 
pensation, the most of that people had lost sight of the real im- 
port of those institutions that were so truly significant They 
made clean the outside of the cup and platter, and neglected 
I the weightier matters of the law. They thought that he was a 
Jew that was one outwardly, and that that was circumcision 
which was outward in the flesh. It was the certainty that their 
ordinances had been instituted by God, and the backwardness 
which every one feels to condemn himself, that led them to feel 
such satisfaction with the external appearance without the ra- 
tional and necessary substance. For the law, says truth, hath a 
shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the 
things. 

This fond flattery of themselves in the utility of that which 
they presently professed, did not however, either among the 
Jews or gentiles, give satisfaction unto the impartial and the 
reflecting. The intelligent and learned in the pagan world re- 
jected, as below the reasonableness of things, the superstition 
which had overrun their respective regions, and longed in deep 
anxiety for a revelation to direct them : and the wise of the 
Jews were waiting, as is instanced in good old Simeon, for 'the 
consolation of Israel. It was impossible for them to be com- 
pletely satisfied, and each of them must have desired like this 
eunuch with regard to the portion of scripture he was reading, 
to have some one to guide him. Generation after generation, 
however^ in the heathen world, had passed away without seeing 
the light of revelation arising upon them; and few of the Jews 
were directed to the genuine sight of divine doctrine. The one 
remained enveloped in the clouds of their impenetrable ignorance, 
i and the other might be asked and reproved by, " To what pur- 
pose is the mutitude of your sacrifices? will the Lord be pleased 
with the blood of bullocks, or of rams, or of lambs, or of he- 
goats But that ignorance which had involved all nations of 
the gentiles, and that perversion of divinely instituted ordi- 



521 



THE CONVERSION OP 



nances among the Jews, which might expose them to the ridi- 
cule of the more reflecting, are now completely overturned. 
Jesus the Saviour of the world, whose death appeases the jus- 
tice of God, and reconciles the obstinate sinner; in regard to 
the sacrifice of whom all expiations throughout the world must 
have been instituted; and whose death gives so full an account 
of the reasonableness of the Jewish rites and ceremonies, is pro- 
claimed in the preaching of the gospel. The great difficulties 
of the light of nature, how a sinner is to appear before a holy 
God, and on what evidences the soul's immortality rests, are 
now resolved. The divine Mediator makes a real atonement, 
and presents us without spot or blemish before the Holy One; 
whilst his resurrection brings life and immortality to light; and 
whilst thus all oblations throughout the world may be traced to 
their origin, sacrificing amongst the Jews in particular is explain- 
ed, by this one offering of him who hath for ever perfected them 
that are sanctified. Yes, the ignorance which involved his 
fathers is now dispersed; and his religion, to the ceremonies of 
which, he has travelled so far, he can clearly show to all the 
world, is worthy of his long journey. Hence the eunuch goes on 
his way rejoicing. 

But we observe, thirdly, That he went on his way rejoicing, 
because that great personage, expected over all the nations, had 
actually arrived. Not only was there an anticipation among 
the Jews who were immediately directed by the prophecies and 
ordinances of the Old Testament, that at the time of Christ's 
appearance in our world, a mighty personage should show him- 
self on the stage of time; but there was a general expectation of 
him throughout almost all nations. The woman of Samaria 
said, that she knew that the Messiah who is called Christ should 
come; and even Virgil and Julius Marathus spake of a great 
personage to appear; which idea could not be supposed to occur 
to them, but by some adulterated and faint tradition of the ex- 
pected Messiah. And the very manner in which the latter 
speaks of him, is particularly to be observed. He says that 
nature was about to bring forth a Son that should be king of 
the nations. Tacitus and Suetonius, Roman historians of 



THE ^ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



great celebrity, mention too this general expectation of man- 
kind, and even say that he is to arise out of Judea. In the east, 
in Persia and Babylon, they were so vigilant in their outlook for 
this admirable person, that they believed, even before it happen- 
ed, that men were to be directed to him by a supernatural star; 
— the reason, no doubt, why the wise men came to our Saviour, 
saying, « Lol we have seen his star in the east."" The dispersion 
of the Jews among the rest of the nations of the earth, as well 
as the prophecies of Balaam, Daniel, and others, we may just 
remark, no doubt occasioned this general expectation. Now a 
knowledge that this general expectation of all nations was fully 
gratified, could not but infuse joy unspeakable into the breast of 
the Ethiopian eunuch. He would say to himself, it has been no 
unfounded fancy of which poets have sung and philosophers 
have conjectured, and by which distressed nations have consoled 
themselves with the prospects of deliverance. Greatly have 
they been mistaken about the real manner and design of his 
appearance. The Jews calculated on a great king, and tem- 
poral Redeemer only, to redeem from Roman bondage the disho- 
norably mortgaged inheritance of their peculiarly promised land ; 
and the rest of the nations looked to him, some with joy, and 
some with fear; the oppressed that perhaps he would break the 
chains of their oppression, and the oppressors that perhaps their 
instruments of power would be broken. But he is a deliverer 
most glorious indeed : not as either Jew or gentile were expect- 
ing him to be; not a temporal Saviour, to place justice among 
the nations; but a spiritual Redeemer, to deliver both the victor 
and vanquished from the most disgraceful and miserable of all 
conditions, bondage to sin, and the displeasure of an angry God, 
Which brings us to remark, fourthly, That he went on his 
way rejoicing, because he saw the salvation of mankind accom- 
plished. It appears that this eunuch was truly a man desirous 
of religious attainments, and not satisfied with every form of 
worship, else he would not have travelled from the court of 
Ethiopia to Jerusalem, to the temple of God, for his devotions. 
But whilst his religious affections were warm, and he sought the 
end of religion, the salvation of his immortal soul, many doubts. 



$14 



THE CONVERSION OP 



even at the altars of the Jews, must have arisen in his mind, 
"The superstition of all nations around him , he saw, was gross 
and abhorrent, and even the most systematic and rational under 
the wings of the temple of God had many infirmities. Can 
reason believe that the blood of bulls or of goats expiates sin? 
No; the sinful world, for all this good man can yet see of its 
redemption, may be lost for ever. His religion is only the best 
with which he can obtain an acquaintance, in an age universally 
sunk in superstition or deceived with mere observances. But 
the hopes of the human race he sees are now established; their 
salvation on the most firm grounds is come to pass. The only 
begotten Son of God could not be crucified and raised from the 
dead, without our being saved. No; when the Creator of the 
world makes an effort to destroy death in his own territories, the 
world must be redeemed. It is impossible that the source of all 
life should pass through the regions of death, and not sweep 
them of every mortal seed and mean of destruction, as far as his 
omniscience saw was for his glory. Hence the inspired inter- 
pretation which Philip gave him of the prophecy of sufferings 
and punishment, which he was reading, could not but show to 
his understanding the real redemption of the world, and fill his 
heart with joy proportioned to this great achievement. When a 
kingdom is emancipated from the successful tyranny that for years 
has oppressed it, joy beams on every countenance within the 
realm, and friendly nations light the torch of sympathetic 
rejoicings; but how much more genuine, as well as deep, must 
have been the gladness of this pious and sincere eunuch, when 
he, in light clearer than noonday, saw the world through to the 
latest age delivered from the worst of all thraldoms, condemna- 
tion and eternal death. 

But we observe, fifthly, That he went on his way rejoicing, 
because he had received in his own instance this salvation which 
was provided for all nations. The welfare of our own immortal 
souls is of such vast moment, that whilst great and beneficent 
objects draw forth our exultation, the security of our own eternal 
existence amongst the intellectual natures that are to live for 
ever, cannot but form a copious source of it. Our immortal 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



315 



souls look into the awful pit of ignominy and disgrace from 
which they are saved, and to the eternal inheritance to which 
they are destined; and a sense of rescue from the former, and 
preparation for the latter, is a perpetual spring of vivid enjoy- 
ment. Hence the language of the jailer, " What shall 1 do to 
be saved?" hence the commendation of our Saviour to Mary, 
for attending to the one thing needful ; hence the propriety of 
the precept to lay up treasures where neither moth nor rust can 
corrupt, nor thieves break through to steal; and hence the true 
emphasis of that language from the mouth of an apostle, " Wo 
is me if I preach not the gospel;" hence, indeed, the very end 
of Christ's death, the reason of the revelation of all the doc- 
trines of salvation, and the whole meaning of religious exercises . 
—The value of an immortal soul is seldom duly estimated. But 
the worth of the whole world is nothing to it; yea, of a thousand 
worlds, which are only transitory connexions. " What is a man 
profited if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own 
soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" 
Could we read the countless objects that would define its value, 
as it appears to the eye of Jehovah, who hath redeemed it by the 
blood of his Son, we would see that worlds, countless as the 
leaves of the forest, the drops of water which roll in the ocean, 
the stars of night, which are innumerable, could not make the 
most distant approximation to its surpassing excellence. What- 
ever a person possesses and enjoys may be considered his 
subservient and ministering property; and worlds more numerous 
than the sand on the sea shore may, in the ceaseless ages of exis- 
tence, be surveyed by the saints, in the glorious character too of 
the new heavens and the new earth. " And he that overcometb 
shall inherit all things." Sensible of this great value and these 
prospects of his own immortal spirit, he goes on his way 
rejoicing. 

But we observe, sixthly, That he went on his way rejoicing, 
because he had the most joyful news to carry home to his coun- 
trymen. No doubt although his talents must have procured 
him very great respect, and his high and dignified office hushed 
to silence the malicious whispers of the interested, yet this 




me 



THE CONVERSION OF 



eunuch had many in the Ethiopian nation, and strangers at 
Queen Candace's court, who must have suspected him as under 
the influence of it, and putting himself to great hardships in 
order to support a grievous superstition. Apt would many of 
{he wits of court and many of the profane of ihe country be, to 
ask him many questions about the great advantages he certainly 
had from his long and rugged journey, under a burning sun, 
end through a barren country, to the temple of a mean and 
despised people. But this day a field of thought and argument 
has indeed burst upon his view. Every prophecy has found a 
meaning, every divinely instituted ordinance a solid substance, 
every obscure doctrine a heavenly light, God's temple a real 
inhabitant, and his altar an effectual sacrifice. The eunuch 
could tell them that those prophecies which he always expected 
to be divine, that those ordinances which had been established 
by the evidence of such miracles, and that those doctrines which 
appeared to be so sublimely expressed, were really to a demon- 
stration what he believed them to be. Attend, he would say, 
to the prophecies of Jacob which promised the Messiah at the 
departure of the sceptre from Juda and the lawgiver from between 
her feet; and see how well this prediction, though delivered 
many ages ago, answers to the period of the manifestation of the 
Son of God. Consider Balaam's star out of Jacob, and his 
sceptre of righteousness out of Israel; and see how fully the 
one beams in the all-powerful light, and the other rules in the 
dominion, of the Redeemer of mankind. Turn over to the pro- 
phecies of Daniel, where his seventy weeks are determined to 
build the city of Jerusalem and its walls in troublous times, be- 
fore Messiah the Prince be cut offbut not for himself; and see how 
admirably the time answers to this era of the redemption of our 
world. In a word, consider that portion of Isaiah, that portion 
which I was reading, when an apostle, divinely directed, ran to 
me and asked me, " Understandest thou what thou readest?" 
— -that portion which admits of no application but to the promised 
Messiah, and which from him receives such a divine light; and 
you will behold what reason I have had to attend upon the 
passover and feast of unleavened bread at Jerusalem. At the 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



317 



temple of Jerusalem there was appointed the sacrifices which 
typified the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world; there was ordained, in every preceding age, the means of 
the salvation of mankind. Oh! Ethiopians, I have to tell you of 
the Saviour of sinners, who, in the fulness of time, when all 
things, by predictions, and types, and revolutions of kingdoms, 
had prepared his way, actually in a correspondence to these, 
and indeed a general expectation of mankind, died in our world 
to redeem it, and hath really saved it from its sin. You, Ethio- 
pians, cannot change your skin, nor the leopard his spots; but 
to you now will be administered the laver in which, black as you 
are in a moral point of view, you may wash yourselves whiter 
than the snow. The middle wall of partition which till now 
has separated the Jew from the gentile is broken down, and the 
religion of the Saviour of the world will be preached at your 
gates. The apostles of the Lord of glory, invested with the 
power of working miracles, are sent out to all nations, and their 
signs, and their wonders, and the life, the life and immortality of 
their doctrines, will now appear amongst you. Contemplating 
these things he went on his way rejoicing. 

But we observe, lastly, That he went on his way rejoicing, 
because he saw that dispensation of mercy which was to visit all 
lands established and unfolding its principles. It was impossi- 
ble to have been baptised in the name of Jesus, and to have had 
all the scriptures which respected him unfolded, and not see the 
advantageous nature of that dispensation of mercy under which 
he now lived . Following the streams of the prophecies which 
must have been discovered to him, he could not but be greatly 
delighted as he rode along, with the belief that the barren wil- 
dernesses must become fertile lands, and that streams of living 
water are to break out in every desert. His imagination must 
have wandered into the distant periods of time, as well as the 
distant regions of the world, and must have felt a joyful enthu- 
siasm from the prospect of the true religion to be disseminated 
from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth. 
I am baptised, he would say, in the name of Jesus; and the 
water with which I have been baptised will be consecrated for 



318 



THE CONVERSION OP 



this blessed purpose to the ends of the earth. Yes, hail ye 
streams and ye sacred fountains ; ye have been often celebrated 
in the song of the muses, and been highly useful in refreshing 
our weak and exhausted natures ; but ever after, you may con- 
tain some drops that represent the blood of the Son of God, and 
may be employed in washing an immortal soul from its sins; 
you are now the ordained symbols which on the earth are to 
purify the church of God. Hail ye many nations who will drink 
your sacred fountains; and as you drink may you always recol- 
lect that these streams may be a mean of sealing your rescue 
from the burning flame of divine wrath. Thus looking forward 
among the ages to come, he would sing at every stream the 
remembrance of the Lord, and go on his way rejoicing. 

The second thing we proposed to investigate was, how could 
such an effect be so suddenly and so effectually produced on his 
mind? This is a most important inquiry; differing immensely 
from that inquiry which the divine institutes in respect to those 
instances of conversion which take place under an acknowledged 
and professed system of religion. Our present inquiry cannot 
be rationally satisfied, till we analyze the whole of the circum- 
stances attending the life of the convert, and the time and place 
of his conversion. 

The history of the Ethiopian eunuch is known as far as we 
can desire. He was a minister employed in a political office; 
which both requires talent and is disposed to remain contented 
with existing institutions. He is particularly connected with 
the Jewish nation, and travels far to do honor to the institutions 
of the Jewish people. His conduct is the very opposite of 
levity, and his mind is not distracted by any terrors of con- 
science. Indeed he starts into view most respectable, and he 
seems to act from the deepest conviction. With the time and 
place of his conversion we are equally acquainted. It was not 
far off from the city of Jerusalem, and in the midst of that 
ground which was tearing up and changing its appearance, by 
q whirlwind which made every spot feel its influence, and which 
left no one without exciting his feelings to the highest degree. 
Aij immense number of men have been driven off from the city 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



319 



of Jerusalem ; but wherever they appear they have a sternness 
in their look, and a determination in their step, which clearly 
show that whether they be managing their cause in their metro- 
polis or any where else, it is their resolution that it shall prevail. 
It was, indeed a peculiar cause. An illustrious master had be- 
gun it ; had given it renown by the reputation of miracles ; had 
been arrested, however, in his progress by an ignominious death ; 
and yet had started it anew by an astonishing fact, his own 
resurrection from the dead. If the whole Jewish nation had 
become converts to this extraordinary cause, it might have been 
suspected that the people, who had so many miracles in their 
national records, were determined that they should crown the 
history of the whole, by the resurrection and ascension into 
heaven of their Messiah ; and it might have been suspected that 
the Ethiopian eunuch could not, when he came to the city of 
Jerusalem, withstand an impulse which was so irresistible. But 
the resurrection and ascension of Christ were observed by some 
particular witnesses, who could not possibly be mistaken about 
the identity of his person ; and the rest were left with the un- 
doubted absence of Christ's body from the tomb; the continu- 
ance of the train of miracles which they thought to stop by the 
crucifixion of Christ; and the zeal and sincerity of the apostles 
and disciples. By these means a part of the Jewish nation 
underwent a most astonishing revolution of sentiment. Many 
who had before his crucifixion continued incredulous in respect to 
Christ's pretensions, became, after his death, not only converts 
to his cause, but attached to it above the love of life itself. 
Eight thousand at the city of Jerusalem were proselyted by the 
address of Peter on the day of Pentecost, and of the apostles 
on a subsequent occasion ; and the cause gathered an increase 
daily. 

When the Ethiopian eunuch, therefore, came to Jerusalem, 
the national agitation could not possibly have concealed itself 
from him. Indeed it is implied in the history of his conversion 
that he was acquainted with it. Had he not known of the gene* 
ral and interesting topics of the day, when Philip approached 
him, and when he preached to him Jesus, he would have replied 



320 



THE CONVERSION OF 



to him, these things cannot be as you state them: a man so 
famous in his life, so remarkable in his death, and who rose 
again from the dead; who has produced such a deep sensation 
as you say on the minds of the Jews, and even on surrounding 
nations, cannot have been in this place else I would have heard 
of it. What, do you require me to believe, as a great and mira- 
culous fact, that which is even more extraordinary than the 
passing of the Red Sea, and which, however, instead of being 
the national song of the Israelites, is not attracting the least 
attention, nor exciting the least inquiry? It is surely a sublime 
dream that you are introducing to interpret this passage of out 
prophets. 

But, my brethren, if this minister of Queen Candace, 
when at the city of Jerusalem, heard any narration of the cir- 
cumstances of the times; if he heard what the high priest and 
the rulers had lately done, and what a new party were deter- 
mined to establish; if he heard that both parties appealed 
to facts and to scripture, he could scarce fail, if met near the 
city of Jerusalem, to be either thinking on these things, or to be 
reading the predictions respecting them. 

The celebrated historian of " the decline and fall of the 
Roman empire," in his enmity to the christian religion, states, 
that he will pass over the supernatural evidences of it, and attend 
to the human causes which operated to its rapid diffusion and 
establishment among men. But though it may be granted that 
in general, in our day, converts are made to a religious life 
without particularly fixing their minds on the miracles of Christ, 
especially that of his resurrection ; yet this could not be the 
case in the first instances of its triumph in the world. After 
converts became numerous in any country, and their manners 
exerted an influence over neighbors, inducing them to put on 
the same habits, we grant that those principles in human nature 
which copy generally the religion which is prevailing, would not 
be, in respect to the christian religion, without their effect; and 
that even in the first century many might be brought to embrace 
the religion of Christ from the holy lives and doctrines of the 
apostles, and the professedly pious habits of its converts. 



THE ETHIOPIAN ETTNUCH. 321 

But still we do not think that any man of judgment in our own 
time embraces our religion without a respect to its miraculous 
origin; and far less that any man of reflection could, in the 
first age of Christianity, cast off his former religious sentiments, 
and become a disciple of the new religion, without adopting 
those miraculous traits which were the most prominent points 
of its history, and which, by men of judgment and feeling, 
could never, when the subject came to be mentioned, but sum- 
mon upon themselves all their powers of reflection. When 
Peter and the rest of the apostles, on the day of Pentecost, 
stood arrayed under the miraculous appearance which de»- 
scended from heaven upon them, and when they spake of the 
death and resurrection of Christ, had the converts, so numerous 
among their hearers, no respect to any thing but the zeal of 
the apostles, the sublime doctrine of immortality, the resurrec- 
tion from the dead, and the promise of the forgiveness of all 
their sins? As Jews, the doctrine of immortality, of the resur- 
rection, of the pardon of sin by the promises of God, had been 
a subject of perpetual exultation to them; and nothing but 
the naked miracle which addressed their eyes and ears, and 
the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven, could 
operate to prick them to the heart, and to make them cry out, 
" What shall we do to be saved ?" Infidels may suppose what 
they please about the truth of the history of the propagation of 
Christianity ; but if the facts respecting the conversion of men 
are not to be denied, from the very principles of human nature, 
they were not human arts and arguments that succeeded in 
making proselytes: but, howsoever we are to account for it, it 
was a belief in divine evidences which no man nor assemblage 
of men could of themselves promise to afford. — For let us draw 
near to this one man, this Ethiopian eunuch of intelligence 
and of enterprise. — The whole country where he has been, and 
through which he is passing, is convulsed by the events of the 
times; and after the explication of the passage which he Is 
found reading, and the statement of the events of Jesus' 
28 



322 THE CONVERSION OF 

history, he believes with all his heart. What does he believe? 
The zeal of his teacher, and the common doctrines of his reli- 
gion? No, he believes that the Messiah was cut off out of the 
land of the living, and that yet he sees his seed and prolongs 
his days. They are the miracles, the death, the resurrection, 
and ascension of Christ that he believes; and had not he 
believed all these, his heart, at the sight of the water, never 
would have suggested to him to make the solemn change in 
his religious profession which, in our text, is stated to be the 
source of his joy. 

Indeed, the conduct of infidels never will permit us to be- 
lieve, that any thing else than the deepest conviction of the 
truth of the miracles, in the history of Christ and of his apos- 
tles, could, in the first age of Christianity, induce any man 
however little he might reflect, to enrol his name with sincerity 
among the followers of Christ. The infidels are continually 
talking against the miracles of our holy religion , insisting on 
the uniformity of the laws of nature ; and the impossibility of 
a real interruption of these laws. And the enemies of this 
religion among the Jews and among the Gentiles could find 
no successful means of attacking it, but prejudices in favor of 
the ancient systems of their fathers, and the falsehood of the 
doctrine of Christ's resurrection. This point of his resurrection 
was the great bone of contention : a miraculous evidence which 
its friends could never leave behind them, could never put out 
of sight, on which alone they must risk the prosperity of their 
cause, and which with every opponent they must dispute. If 
they could have shut it up* in neutrality; then men might 
speak about the mere human means that were in operation , 
but the disciples could no more do this, than they could tear 
the sun from the firmament; nor at that time could any man. 
even of the most moderate capacity, have turned, under the 
banners of his conscience, to the new religion, but as a sincere 
believer in all its miraculous history, and this as in opposition 
to those who were around him still of a different sentiment. 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



323 



All disciples went on their way rejoicing; but it was from the 
deepest convictions of the miraculous fact of Christ's resurrec- 
tion. 

Bat, in the last place, We ask why is this occurrence so par- 
ticularly noticed ? This is for the most important ends. The 
names of individuals mentioned throughout the Acts of the 
Apostles, and in some other parts of revelation, present to us a 
view of the vast fabric of the church as she existed in the days 
of the apostles; for we see the extent of the society, in the 
number of those who managed her concerns. When the Euro- 
peans first sailed round Africa they were astonished to find the 
vast nation of Ethiopia possessed of the religion of Christ; but 
while indeed they might have received it from Egypt, it is highly 
probable that they date the entrance of the waters of life from 
the time of the return of this eunuch. Of the introduction of 
Christianity into Africa we in scripture have no account. Yet 
Ethiopia must stretch out her hand to God ; and when this 
eunuch passes through the messengers of the new covenant, the 
spirit hails him, and sends forward for her acceptance wisdom 
whieh the topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal. Egypt is to vow a 
vow and swear to the Lord of hosts; but one would be apt to 
think, that the apostles designed to let the prophecies adjust 
their own concerns; for they tread where the prophecies had 
scarcely ventured to prepare their way. Egypt is just once allu- 
ded to; but the allusion is like the prophet's cruise of oil to one 
who reflects upon it: we cannot exhaust it. — Apollos is stated 
to have come from Alexandria, the capital of Egypt. This 
man was mighty in the scriptures; and although he needed 
some little information about .some of the concomitant parts 
which attended the main concerns in the history of Christ and 
of his apostles, yet he is esteemed by many superior to Paul 
himself. Why did he leave Africa, the place of his nativity, 
,and the school of his education? Was the ministry of Christ 
so flourishing and abundant there, that they could spare with 
ease one of their most ^promising students ? It would seeni 



324 



THE CONVERSION OP 



that this was the case; for the christian history of Egypt and 
of the adjoining regions, soon comes forward in maturity of 
attainments, and rivals, if not excels, the triumphs of our reli- 
gion in the most favored spots of the world. 

The historian we alluded to, does more justice to the gene- 
ral and rapid spread of the gospel, than many of the warmest 
friends of Christianity. He was too well acquainted with an- 
cient history to err in respect to the facts on this head ; but 
many individuals will make the apostles travel with innumera- 
ble assistants into the most populous cities of the world, where 
in many places a hundred numerous congregations might have 
been collected ; and yet they will not concede that we ought 
to persuade ourselves that they gathered together in the ut- 
most tide of their success more than one congregation. Even 
in the alarm excited at Ephesus for the general overthrow of 
idolatry in that uncommonly populous city and throughout 
Asia by the success of the apostles; yet it is believed, that not 
more than can be edified in one congregation had left idola- 
try and enrolled their names under the banners of the gospel. 
But the word church, in scripture, though sometimes applied to 
to a single congregation, is not equivalent to it, and generally 
means the whole converts to Christianity in the region in ques- 
tion, however numerous they might be; because they had all 
one faith and one profession. Hence the word church, as in 
this passage, " he is head over all things to his church which is 
his body," at times comprehends the whole New Testament 
congregation of the Lord, dispersed far and wide as they were, 
and clustered in immense multitudes as in some cities took 
place. 

There are two or three things which bring the religion of 
Christ before us as most extensively spread, and in many places 
closely planted in the days of the apostles. Paul, after he had 
been long in the ministry, and had had on his mind the care of 
the whole churches, yet does not seem, throughout all the lines 
of his intercourse, to have learned the christian settlements 



THE ETHIOPIAN EtJNTJCH. 



325 



which were making and gathering strength. Tyre, which now 
answers in its desolation wonderfully to the dress of the fish- 
erman's nets which Isaiah put upon it, was however to be pre- 
served till after the diffusion of the gospel-, and with Rahab 
and Babylon, Philistia and Ethiopia, was to present sons to 
God : bat when Paul came to it, he was unexpectedly greeted 
by the brethren whom lie found there. It was especially pro- 
phetical ground, and for any thing that we can see, was left, 
like otlier such portions of the earth, to present to us the fact 
only of a rich harvest of -converts to Christ. — Paul says that 
when he would take his journey into Spain, he would visit the 
disciples in Italy and in Home; but why leave the populous 
regions of Asia, of Greece, and pay only a passing visit to the 
metropolis of the world ? Why leave Egypt behind, the cradle 
of the sciences, and the scene of ancient renown? It is impos- 
sible to account for these things on any other supposition than 
that he saw a solid and permanent foundation for the prosperity 
of the religion of Christ already laid in all these countries, 
and that therefore he might leave them safely to others to 
water, whilst he himself passed on to a region in which he 
would be building on no other man's foundation. — But Rome, 
containing three millions of people, has it only one little 
society, which a single voice might edify and command? We 
see the flourishing state of the Italian churches in Paul's salu- 
tations to his fellow laborers in that country, in the sixteenth 
chapter of his epistle to the Romans. That chapter seems to 
have been written to proclaim to the world, at that time and in 
every future age, the wisdom of an intended journey into a 
distant and partly savage colony, by leaving every renowned 
and populous region, where there had been already plantings 
and waterings with wonderful success. 

Yes, my brethren, wherever Ham's children were, they were 
gathered by the prophecies among the fulness of the gentiles; 
but as our Saviour was sent to the lost sheep of the house of 

Israel, so his apostles seemed, under the providence of God, 

28* 



326 



THE COKTERSIOX OF 



to direct all their energies to the fulfilment in its order of the 
declaration, that Japheth should dwell in the tents of Shem. 
Hence as many colonies in Spain were from Africa, Paul can 
only speak of his journey thither; Egypt is only once alluded to; 
and Ethiopia has in revelation no more provision made for it, 
than this eunuch on whom a few moments of Christ's ministry 
has been bestowed, and then his Spirit calls off the minister. 
" And the Spirit caught away Philip, and he went on his way 
rejoicing." — This conversion, however, is an instance of the 
small mustard seed beginning to take root, and which, belong- 
ing to the kingdom of heaven, is, under the watering of Christ's 
prediction, to spread into a great tree. In it we see Ethiopia's 
ancient promise fulfilled for a rich and powerful increase. 
The expression is incidental : but it is connected with the illu- 
mination of a quarter of the world. 

For while among the Jews and among the gentiles so many 
converts were made, in the very earliest periods of the propaga- 
tion of our holy religion, to convince every future age that a 
conviction of the truth of the miracles and resurrection of 
Christ and the miracles of the apostles produced on human 
nature such a total change in so many thousands of indivi- 
duals; we must state to you that this very nation to which the 
eunuch belonged comes to occupy afterwards a very important 
feature in the history of our world. Ethiopia and many other 
churches, scattered in the providence of God over the face of 
the earth, are evidences, and will be to the end of time, that 
God hath never acknowledged, in the actual state of things, for 
one moment , that there shall be, visible or invisible, any uni- 
versal head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ alone. 
And when that spirit of joy in spreading the religion of 
Christ which now operates on the north, south, east, and 
west of Ethiopia, shall enter among that people, as in some 
degree it can scarcely fail to do, they may bear the scriptures 
to many surrounding nations of kindred languages; and remem- 
bering what was done of old, they may long keep on their way 



THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. 



527 



rejoicing. — For these things are certain, that in the first age of 
Christianity the ministers of Christ were flocking in every quar- 
ter; convinced, of the wonders of their religion, men of 
the most respectable characters and estimable judgment; 
attacked cities, countries, and individuals, and shook off the 
dust of their feet against only a very few; in the issue, by the 
belief of miracles, they turned the world upside down ; and what 
they so successfully began, under God, and the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and the Holy Spirit, their successors, in every nation, 
should endeavor to carry, by the means in their hands, to the 
extremities of the earth. The word of God is called " glad 
tidings;" and its converts should always send it on its way 
rejoicing; while for themselves, each individual, in looking after 
the risen Saviour, should utter this beautiful language: 
"Whom having not seen we love; in whom, though now we 
see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory." Amen 



DISCOURSE XV. 



GOD'S BLESSING TO HIS PEOPLE. 



Revelation 22:21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 
be with you all. Amen. 

There are, my brethren, as respecting the lives of individual 
persons, so particular periods in every important transaction, 
peculiarly impressive. The solemnity which marks the com- 
mencement of any great city which it is intended to build, or 
of any kingdom which is projected to be raised ; the inscrip- 
tions which are engraven upon the first laid stone of the foun- 
dation of the first house of that city, and the royal ensigns 
which are first dedicated to the promised empire, fill the be- 
holders with emotions that are deep and awful. We see in 
history the grandees of the nation assembled to behold the 
foundation of their capitol laid, and to bestow an august 
solemnity on the deed ; and we see, with bended knee, the 
victorious army, or the strangers in the infant colony, kneeling 
around the regalia of their infant nation, and laying them up in 
custody as the pledges of their mutual fidelity, union, and 
independence. The end of great achievements kindles still 
more lively emotions. The palaces of kings are finished with 
shouts of exultation, wars are terminated by universal testi- 
monies of joy, and the great designs of good men are finished* 
like that of the temple of Jerusalem, with shoutings, crying 
grace, grace, unto it. 



god's blessing to his people. 



329 



This certainly proceeds from some principles in our nature 
inclined to produce such a conduct. For the Saviour of the 
world himself, when finishing the arduous and magnificent 
work of our salvation in regard to the procurement of the 
blessings which compose it, said, with solemn emotion, " It 
is finished ;" the sun withdrew his shining, and the dead arose. 

The relations of our text have led us into these reflections. 
These are the last words God will ever reveal to men ; these 
are the copestone of the great building of Zion, as it is reared 
in perfection in revelation ; these stop the mouths of the pro- 
phets of the living God ; and these impress our minds with 
emotions of sublimity from the lapse of time, and the abun- 
dance of benediction which they contain. — " The grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." 

What, in the further prosecution of the discourse, we intend 
is, in the first place, to illustrate the solemn relations of this 
verse; secondly, to unfold the abundance of benediction which 
it contains; and, lastly, to conclude by an application. 

We are first to illustrate the solemn relations of this verse. 
We observe, first, That these are the last words ever God will 
speak to men. When men were few, God frequently uttered 
his voice among them; and the divine instructions were com- 
mitted as a treasury to man for the use of future ages. Men 
under the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost illumed, in 
<every age, the stage of human life, and corrected, with the 
authority of divine ambassadors, the abuses that prevailed; 
instructed how difficulties were to be overcome; and pointed 
out the path of duty to individuals, states, and nations. God's 
voice was always to be heard either immediately from the 
clouds, or where the divine communications could not be 
doubted, from the venerable lips of commissioned seers and 
prophets, accredited by miracles. But God had the full sys- 
tem of truth which unfolds the contents of the covenant of 
grace only to reveal ; and while he displayed his sovereignty in 
selecting the state of human society to which to manifest his 



330 



god's blessing to his people. 



will, and his wisdom in the choice of the early time when to 
reveal it, he hath impressed our minds with solemnity in read- 
ing this verse, which concludes the whole of the revelation of 
it, by the reflection — that God's voice shall never more be 
heard. 

Individuals may be placed in situations where nothing but a 
heavenly voice could resolve their doubts and direct their 
course; nations maybe so shaken and agitated, convulsed by 
internal divisions or terrified by external enemies, that a gleam 
of heavenly light to bestow direction would be a blessing to be 
obtained from no other quarter: but the visions and the "prophe- 
cies are over. The command, benign and merciful, which led 
Noah to build the ark of his preservation from the deluge of 
waters that overwhelmed the whole world besides; the intima- 
tion which was no less mercifully given to Abraham than sub- 
missively received, to leave the idolatrous and destructive land 
of his nativity; the words which taught Isaac and Jacob and 
conducted the retreat of Lot; the divine communications made 
known to Moses, when God spake face to face with him; the 
knowledge from the urim and thummim on the breast of the 
high priest of the Jews; and God's instructing mankind in 
dreams, trances, and visions of the night, meet no longer the 
deluded or ignorant, the harrassed or afflicted individual, or the 
convulsed and expiring nation. We may throw our eye over 
the millions that now people our globe; we may survey the 
innumerable kingdoms of the heathen world, whose regions 
live with inhabitants; and we may imagine what superstition 
might be expelled, and what souls might be saved, by the erec- 
tion of divine oracles and the immediate utterance of Jehovah's 
voice among them ;— but the idea only heightens the solemnity 
of these words, which prevent the opening of such gates of 
divine instruction, at the same time that they seal up the very 
treasure of divine knowledge which, at its appointed period, is 
to accomplish this happy end,— Reflect upon the relations of 
this verse in regard to God's speaking to our world. It marks 



god's blessing to his people. 



331 



the precise point when God, who spake for many ages to man- 
kind, stops his voice; it hushes into silence the expectations of 
all men in all nations respecting further communications of 
knowledge from heaven; and it seals the very book which con- 
tains all that is necessary to be known for the present and 
eternal welfare of all men; and that very book too, which, at 
their respective times when it was ordained by God that 
they should receive it, will be delivered into their possession. 

God has always, my brethren, hastened to have his works 
transferred to the ends for which they are destined, finished and 
consummated in every part. What wisdom in the arrangements 
of nature for the support, conveniency, and happiness of his 
sentient and intelligent creatures! But God hastened over the 
hours of the economy of creation; and interesting as it might 
be to see new species of plants springing from the soil, or new 
animals arising from the clay, the period of all such operations 
is past. So revelation was not deferred in its origin beyond the 
earliest period of a proper commencement, and in its consum- 
mation beyond the formation and arrangement of the materials 
which had to enter intQ the great building which he was con- 
structing. God made all mines of gold and silver, of iron and 
copper, and of the minerals which support the useful arts in all 
their departments; but these w 7 ere laid up in treasures in the 
very morning of creation; and just *s the whole process was 
finishing, with the most of them in the crust of the globe; and 
so revelation, as soon as its elements were all prepared, tarried 
not, but came to a definite and joyful conclusion in the mellow 
and rich language of the subject of our discourse. 

But we observe, secondly, That this verse completes revela- 
tion as a perfect system. Jehovah, who had a grand design of 
mercy to display, did not stop short, at these words, from the 
revelation of any truth that was necessary to be known in order 
to perfect the magnificent fabric of the revelation of his will. 
Some would detract from the merits of the grand building of 
revelation, and the distinguished impressions made by this 
verse, by uncharitable and impious surmises, that there are defi- 
ciencies in the interior of the noble work, and that these words 



332 



god's blessing to his people. 



do not finish a perfect performance, but mark where the hand of 
the workman slopped. But where is there a want or a flaw in 
that structure, which, like the works of nature, is not indeed 
reared by the rules of human composition and art, but with a 
divine magnificence which is at once inimitable in stately gran- 
deur and appearance, and in a singular adaptation to the needs 
and wants of all who will accept the benefit of it? They who 
have seen it may consider the lofty palace, which, when viewed 
at a distance, appears a confusion of broken casements, roofs, 
and turrets, but which, on a near approach, bespeaks itself finish- 
ed by the hand of a master, and accommodated to enter- 
tain the state and to please the taste of a sovereign ; and he will 
see a faint emblem of the sacred temple of divine truth, as it is 
designed and built, in perfection and magnificence, in the volume 
of inspiration; and reflecting on the shouts of joy which the 
sight of a fabric as incomparably more grand than any reared on 
earth, as the glorious and eternal truths of the gospel surpass 
cement and stones, he may thus acquire some idea of the solemn 
and impressive relations of our text. 

Yes, God, in his eternal councils which arranged all events, 
great and small, that will ever take place, appointed the whole 
of the matter, instituted its order, and circumscribed the extent 
of revelation; and every part of the great whole made, like the 
successive steps of creation, its appearance at the appointed 
time, among its appropriate circumstances, and adjusted to its 
own peculiar relations, till the magnificent structure appeared 
completed, without a word wanting or a syllable to be added, 
by the words of this verse. The ignorance of sinners could not 
require another doctrine to be revealed , or the same to be pre- 
sented in a more diversified aspect; their misery could not justify 
the wisdom of proclaiming another promise, or presenting with a 
more pointed edge the abundance of them that are promulgated; 
and their obedience could not desire to be set on a more sure 
foundation, or directed to a more glorious end, than what the 
explained connexion between the gospel and God's perfect law, 
written and defined in every point, and enforced by example, 
affords. The dead spring up anew by the incorruptible seed of 



god's blessing to his people. 333 

this word of life; the tender offspring are fed by the milk which 
it bestows, and are fostered by the nursing care which it exer- 
cises. " Can a woman forget,, her sucking child, that she should 
not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may 
forget, but I will not forget thee; I have engraven thee on the 
palms of my hands, and thy walls are continually before me. 11 
The child of the new birth is reared to all the duties that are 
required from him, and to all the dignity of character which ho 
should support. Difficulties are presented, but he overcomes 
their embarrassment and opposition. " I can do all things through 
him that strengtheneth me." Temptations assail him, but he 
sets at defiance their disguised allurements and their bewitching 
enticements. " With the temptation he will afford a way to 
escape." Enemies surround him, but he foils their power. " The 
Lord is on our side." The man advanced to full age stands the 
centre of approved goodness, and diffuses his uprightness in 
every direction where the light of his duty prescribes. He is 
humble, in the abodes of humility; patient, where this grace 
should particularly shine; and active, where there starts up a 
good cause; zealous in religion, and warm in his friendship to 
men. " The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, 
and truth." But mark this man at the end of his days : he re- 
treats from the world, like the setting sun in a cloudless sky 
and serene evening, clear and enlarged to our view, and shedding 
abroad over the face of nature, streams of light in all directions; 
— an evidence to the most inattentive, that he retires only from 
the view of men, and does not lose a single ray of his vigorous 
brightness. " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth and forever; yea, saith the Spirit, for they shall rest 
from their labors, and their works shall follow them." But 
truth enjoins us to tell it; this new creature which the scripture 
thus forms, rears, establishes, and leads into the eternal world, 
enlarging in life and glory, may be multiplied into all the indi- 
viduals that ever were, are, or shall be, true members of the 
church; and placing them in this united capacity, every single 
instance, and the whole built together, are prepared, cemented, 
and sent off the stage of time, with this question from God him- 
29 



334 



GOD'S BLESSEfG TO HIS PEOPLE. 



self, to every plant in it, and to the whole sacred inclosure, 
(t What could I have done more to my vineyard that I have not 
done?" The individual is formed, reared, and led into eternal 
glory, and the church of God is established, filled, and perfected, 
by the volume of inspiration exactly adapted, and no more, to 
the promotion of the glory of God, in the accomplishment of 
these two illustrious ends; and the solemn and concluding 
words of this exactly adapted and perfect system of revelation 
are, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
Amen 

But thirdly, we observe, with a view to illustrate the solemn 
relations of this verse, That this verse forever stops the mouths 
of the prophets of the living God. When a society of men is about 
to be abolished, and never more is that character which they have 
long supported to utter another syllable in our world, the last 
words which are spoken by the last man in it derive peculiar solem- 
nity from the occasion of their utterance. All connexions which 
have arisen before, and all events which the existence of their 
order may in the least influence among men to the end of time* 
rush in forcible remembrance or anticipation upon the mind. 
With a peculiar increase of emotions is this the case, when the 
order has been instituted by Jehovah himself; when it has lived 
for many generations; when it has been the conveyance of all 
the knowledge and felicity among men, — light to them here 
and glory to them hereafter. We cannot approach in our imagi- 
nation the land where the prophets of the living God consulted 
his oracles, saw his visions, disclosed his secrets, and acted with 
a divinely delegated character on earth, without feeling a reve- 
rence, and having our minds impressed with the august and 
sacred character of the scenery amid which we are placed. On 
John's mind was impressed the solemnity which the consecrated 
scene of the prophets retiring with all the robes of their order, 
the form of their amazed countenances, and the power which 
executed in miraculous achievements God's will upon earth, 
could produce; on John's mind was impressed the solemnity 
which the anticipation of all events predicted by himself and 
preceding prophets could occasion, or which might fall out by 



god's blessing to his people. 



335 



the influential relations of their words among unborn genera- 
tions; and on John's mind was impressed the solemnity of 
standing in the eventful crisis between the states of the world, 
when all divine inspiration and inspired men retired from the 
face of the earth, and a new scene of things appeared — men 
left to themselves with the book of revelation consummated in 
their hand ; — when he held his pen to transcribe this last portion 
of heaven's discoveries for the salvation of sinful men. The 
prophets, where are they now? Holy men of God of old spake 
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; but is there a voice 
from such now ever to be heard? The vision and the prophecy 
aire sealed. 

Yes, my brethren, God never demonstrates his wisdom and 
his power by new acts of creative energy. Men must learn the 
invisible things of God by what is already made and fixed under 
laws which alter not So the prophecies of revelation are pre- 
pared for the observation of men, and no power is permitted to 
interfere with them; they spread themselves over the face of the 
earth, and collect matter from particular nations, and by the rise 
and overthrow of particular societies, as well as the most cheer- 
ing prospects in the faith and improvemets of mankind; but 
whether all these things shall be realized to do honor to the 
scriptures^ and those holy men who wrote them and sprinkled 
them with so many predictions, is left as nakedly to the linea- 
ments of truth in these declarations themselves, as the voice of 
nature is left to utter God's existence by marks which have con- 
tinued sinee the morning of creation, as unvaryingly as is the 
cloudless countenance of the stars. Whosoever addeth to this 
book, to him shall be added the plagues which it contains. 

Nor does this view of the subject hinder our utmost activity 
in the discharge of our christian duties for the purpose of 
spreading the gospel, any more than the intense application of 
philosophical research, which has in modern times been crowned 
with such wonderful success, interferes improperly with the lea- 
pons taught in the school of nature. If the prophecies of scrip- 
ture be not trees of God's planting, they would soon wither, 
Gotwithstanding the waterings of men; but if Jie has planted 



336 



god's blessing to his people" 



them, as christians we ought to copy something of the spirit of 
primitive innocency; — While Adam could not make a single 
tree of Paradise grow, he could be busy pruning and dressing it; 
and so, though our feeble hands can do nothing to make even a 
limb spring forth where God has not prepared a bud for it, we 
are yet to be active and assiduous for the very end of making the 
garden of God prosper. " For God hath established a testimony 
in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded 
oar fathers, that they should make them known to their children, 
that the generations to come might know them, even the child- 
ren who should be born, who should arise and declare them to 
their children." The prophets and seers have withdrawn; but 
we have their visions and prophecies, sealed, like the work of 
creation by the sabbath day, in these most solemn and suitable 
words: " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
Amen." 

Lastly, we observe, That these words impress our minds with, 
emotions of solemnity, from the lapse of time and the abun- 
d ice of appropriate benediction which they contain. Vast and 
glorious is the stupendous tubric of nature, and six days com- 
pleted it; but the structure of revelation, having to adapt itself 
to the various wants and circumstances of successive genera- 
tions, had to rise gradually, and was completed only at the ter- 
mination of more than four thousand years after its foundation 
had been laid. The rude and beggarly elements appearing at 
first in the uncompounded substance of a single promise, in- 
creased and multiplied afterwards into the various forms of an 
imperfect dispensation, with the light, as in the original state of 
material nature, scattered through the whole, but affording^ 
an imperfect vision; and this continued to be the case till the 
sun of righteousness himself shone upon our world, and all the 
light being concentrated in him, the day broke forth in perfection 
after the revolution of many ages. " God who at sundry times and- 
in divers manners spake in times past to the fathers by the pro- 
phets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son." Vast , 
however, as was the time which the manifestation of God's will, 
m the wisdom of its adaptations, occupied ; long as his oracles 



GOD S BLESSING TO HIS PEOPLE. 



3d i 



continued to speak, and his prophets to awe men by the imme- 
diate revelation of his will, the period is long since past. Many 
multitudinous generations of those unborn ages to which the 
prophet looked forward, and by the sight of which his mind was 
filled with benevolence, and to which he bequeathed his parting 
benediction, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 
all, Amen, 1 '' have appeared upon the current of time, sailed 
down the stream, and are gone on the ocean of eternity. — And 
our days are equally rapidly passing away, 

Ohl my brethren, do you measure your time by the solemn 
relations of this verse? How long is it since the last time you 
read through the scriptures, and stopped, pausing, and praying, 
and blessing, all nations and ages of mankind that are yet to 
come, from a heart full and engaged in their interest, in the 
language of this appropriate benediction ? Were not too many 
of your days spent in the time which was occupied in perusing 
from the beginning the sacred records, till you came to these 
concluding words? Consider, my young friends, what a flock 
of your sportive days have fallen behind, in the time which is 
necessarily employed in attending to that indispensable duty, 
which will not leave you, nor can be transferred from you, of 
reading through the sacred reeords; and while you mark your 
days by the lapse of your time, and learn to number them so as 
to apply your hearts to wisdom, double your vigor of application : 
For these words, while you read through the preceding pages, 
can never be too often made a resting place, and a point of solemn 
reflection; whether we consider the instruction you will have 
received, the view of the transitoriness of time that the reflection 
will present before you, or the divine sensations and wishes with 
which these last words themselves will fill you. — My aged parents, 
how often have you paused and reflected on your concluding the 
perusal of the contents of revelation ? The more often you have 
done it, the more solemn does this verse, by its relations to your 
time and the abundance of blessing which it contains, become 
before you. Telling you that the more of your days are num- 
bered, and that you are the nearer to the eternal world, I hope it 
has found you conscious of the character of the saint, whose 

29* 



338 



god's blessing to his people. 



path is as the shining light, which shines more and more unto 
the perfect day; and that you are now, suppose this to be even 
the last time that you are to hear them, walking in those antici- 
pations of blessedness which are thus expressed: " I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, 1 have kept the faith; 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto me; and 
not to me only, but to all them who love his glorious appearing. 71 
— We grow up, my brethren, like the seeds of the trees which 
the wind, after a little, scatters over the face of the earth, some 
here, some there: but it matters not; the dews and the rain are 
the blessings of every region and of every clime. Which brings 
me to the second head of my method, which was, 

Secondly, To unfold the abundance of benediction which 
my text contains. Surely there is something very full and very 
substantial in these words, with which the great God stops his 
mouth from speaking any more to the sons of men ; with which 
he would finish his great system of evangelical communications; 
with which he would dismiss from our world the only rank of 
men to whom he had condescended to manifest himself; and 
with which he would mark such an important era of time. In 
the material creation we see him rising in each successive day's 
work to more and more exquisite displays of his omnipotent 
power and infinite wisdom. Chaos, a rude and undigested 
mass, first appears; forms afterwards assume their organization, 
life moving but irrational follows, and then last of all man, 
bearing the image of his Maker, erect in stature, comely in fea- 
tures, and endowed with rational faculties, crowns the whole 
work. Something very grand, then, must surely be comprised 
in these words, which are the last of the whole structure, and 
raark the perfection of revelation. 

This verse comprises, like man, who is a compend of God's 
creation, organized matter and intelligent spirit, the whole of 
the substance of inspiration. 

f n the first place, This benediction reaches to all men to whon> 
the scriptures come. The scriptures were revealed with the 
intent of offering life and salvation to all who receive them ; and 



god's blessing to his people. 



339 



correspondency to this design of theirs, these concluding words 
pour forth their blessing upon every one who is so happy as to 
lay hold upon them. We are not to consider these words as 
containing the fervent prayer and wishes of the last penman of 
revelation for the people alone who professed Christianity in his 
own time, and on whom their blessing primarily rested; but we* 
ought to contemp .ate this sacred penman walking among all the 
generations of mankind that have received the gospel since his 
day; yea, visiting in their respective nations all races of his chris- 
tian brethren, that have been, are, or will be, to the end of time; 
and saying, with the proffered system of perfected revelation in 
his hand, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
Amen." He follows the streams of the prophecies which break 
out in the wildernesses of the gentiles, and goes from sea to 
6ea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth ; and he 
gathers their sons from far, and their daughters to be nursed at 
his side. He pours out his benediction among their kingdoms, 
till a little one becomes a thousand, and a strong one a great 
nation. He turns also to God's ancient people, who have been 
deserted of God and scattered among the nations; and seeing 
them visited after many days, he encourages them, as well as 
the gentiles, by the appropriate benediction of our text. To 
this view he is influenced, not by his own affections merely as 
gathered upon the prospect, but by the light of the Spirit which 
shines around him from the innumerable passages of the Old 
Testament which present Christ a covenant of the people and a 
light to the gentiles. For his heart swells with the thought, 
that though the Jews crucified the Prince of life, and exclaimed, 
" We have Abraham to our Father, and we are Moses' children," 
yet the world are never to put on the circumcision of Abraham, 
nor the ceremonies of Moses. It is the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ that suits to the future improvements of mankind ; which 
aspires after universal dominion, anfl which will ultimately com- 
mand it. Laying hold upon the borders, then, of the universal 
empire of his exalted master, and remembering that his kingdom 
is an everlasting kingdom, he looks on the high and the low, on 
the rich and the poor, in their successive generations ; and as be 



340 



god's blessing to his people. 



looks he pours, like Aaron's oil that flowed to the skirts of his 
garments, his benediction over all of them. 

But we observe here, in the second place, That as this bene- 
diction reaches to all christians, in all ages and nations, so it 
bestows all the blessings which the supernatural scheme of 
God's salvation of sinful man infolds. Who can lay open 
the import of the word grace here? God himself began the 
work, and he was four thousand years before he finished it. 
Suiely the matter of this benediction is surpassing human cal- 
culation or expression. Moses, their lawgiver, and David, the 
king of Israel, Isaiah, the evangelical prophet, and each of the 
apostles of our Saviour, may present portions of it; but since 
God himself spent age upon age in telling us of the substance 
of it, must we not ask, in unfolding this concluding and all- 
comprehensive benediction, who is sufficient for these things? 
Let a guilty sinner, who has defiled his way through life by a 
mournful course of impiety and profanity, of immorality and 
licentiousness, seek for an atonement for his sins, he will find 
it prepared and perfected in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Let the polluted heart, whose affections, like as a foul and 
flooded fountain wells out impure waters, discharge every hate- 
ful abomination, pride, malice, envy, revenge, blasphemy, and 
every evil thing, ask for a laver in which to wash itself from all 
its defilement, the purifying fountain is opened, and will forever 
flow, in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such, says the 
apostle, were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sancti- 
fied, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by 
the Spirit of our God. 

But it may be asked, in order to perceive the abundance of 
the blessing contained in this benediction, what is the demerit 
of a single instance of that iniquity, all the guilt of which it 
thus cancels ; and how hateful to the eye of holiness is a single 
stain of that corruption, the whole soul polluted with which it 
cleanses? That act of transgression which is the most naked of 
aggravations incorporates in its frame this perversion — a denial 
that God is just and righteous, and that he has a supreme prero- 
gative over his creatures. Sin is not only virtually, but it is 



god's blessing to his people. 



341 



explicitly a denial that God's glorious plans, by which he 
governs the universe, are equitable plans; a bold and daring 
assertion in the very face of Jehovah shining on his laws by his 
authority, that we will not be directed by them; that better rules 
of conduct than his law might be adopted; that we will assume 
opposite and independent methods of practice ; and that we will 
act, in spite of him, just according to our own inclinations. 
Multiply this iniquitous deed, this impious and impotent attempt 
to set aside the government of the Almighty, into all the iniqui- 
tous thoughts which you have devised, the words of evil you 
have spoken, and the actions your hands have unhappily per- 
formed; and add to the sum the innumerable aggravations 
which attend many of the more enormous of your offences ; and 
laying this mass of guilt beside that sink of corruption which is 
in the heart, learn hence the abundance of that grace which 
washes an individual whiter than the snow. And multiply this 
individual into all the tongues, people, and nations, upon whom 
the last prophet of God has here his eye, in all generations to 
the end of time; and you will perceive in some faint view the 
abundance of this concluding benediction of God's word, as it 
happily discovers itself in these two primary and distinguishing 
characters of it — the justification and sanctification of sinners. 

But the plenitude of its benedictions has relations far more, 
extended than these. That not an arrangement of circumstances 
can injure our state, that not an enemy can overcome us, and 
that no less than an entrance into the heavenly state is provided 
for us, are blessings which are comprehended in this valedictory 
benediction of revelation. Let the kingdoms of this world, with 
all the iron chains of persecution, and the deadly axe and block, 
unite with the temptations of Satan to stop the man who is 
onder the influence of that grace which is the matter of this 
benediction ; still we may as soon expect to see the waters return 
to their fountains, and the rain stopped in mid-air, and returning 
to the clouds, as we can expect that we can witness the man 
whose guilt is washed away by this grace, and who is under its 
sanctifying influences, endangered in his happy condition, of 
prevented from the attainment of his celestial possessions 



342 



god's blessing to his people. 



" For Jam persuaded," says Paul, " that neither death, nor life, 
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, 
is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." By the ultimate effects of this grace, judg- 
ments issue in mercies, diseases in salutary medicines, hardships 
in opportunities of zeal and holiness, the braveiy of numerous 
and powerful enemies in occasions of splendid victories, life 
possesses glorious enjoyments, and death is the gate into ever* 
lasting rest. "For which cause we. faint not; but though 
our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed day by day. 
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for 
us a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory, while we 
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which 
are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but 
the things which are not seen are eternal; for we know that if 
the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a 
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." The latter end of Job was better than when he was 
the greatest man of the east ; it was the furnace heated seven 
times hot, their steps in the midst of it with one like to the Son 
of Man, and the smell of fire not marking their garments, that 
gave renown to the three children; and we never feel more true 
amazement at the early disciples of Christ, than when we read 
that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame 
for his sake. Said a virgin, whose beauty was inferior only to 
her piety, and her modesty to her faith, and who, in the time of 
the heathen persecutions, had been silent beside the scene of the 
execution of many of her brethren, but broke silence as she was 
called to the block, and waved then her white hand to the multi- 
tude, " This is a day of receiving crowns, and my head is about 
tp be encircled with mine." 

But we observe, lastly, with a view to unfold the abundance 
of benediction which this verse contains, That all this grace is 
bestowed with a reiterated affection. " The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." This last word of insph. 
tation always returns upon the thoughts preceding, and repeats 



god's blessing to his people. 



343 



hi a single annunciation the whole mental reflections to which it 
relates, — so let them be. In all occurrences this is its import; 
but where has it such an emphasis as here? Here, as it is a 
word from God, it reviews and seals the whole of that revelation 
which unfolds the supernatural dispensation of his grace. As 
it is a word from the last of his prophets, it cements together 
and brings into one blessed possession the whole of the labors of 
his acknowledged brethren. And as it is a word from God's 
Spirit, influencing with groanings which cannot be uttered, a 
man, a christian, and a prophet, it desires with a twofold desire 
that the whole of the contents of God's everlasting covenant of 
grace, in the application of the very means which are appointed 
for the end, may be ours. — What a word is this Amen ! This is 
a word which takes the mantle of the prophets, and spreads it 
with a double portion of affection over us, as the eye is turned 
to the last sight of inspired men, ascending in a whole cluster, 
the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. 

I chose these words , my brethren, for our text to-day, the last 
of Revelation, because this is the last time that I am to address 
you ; and because, as a minister of the sanctuary, I was unwilling 
that the word of God should not be presented by me, both as 
perfect, and as rich in its gracious communications. 

The word of God, my brethren, is so perfect, in its adaptation 
to the great end for which it was revealed, that the Eternal, who 
continued for so many ages to aid it by miracles, and guard it 
by the hands of a particularly chosen people, might well throw 
it naked and alone upon the theatre of our world, like the globe 
which we inhabit, transferred from creating energy to the 
management of common providence. The sacred oracles are 
designed to be read by all; by the young and by the busy, by 
the illiterate, and by the rude of understanding, in the urgencies 
of life, and in the hours of distress ; and they contain all the 
rules of duty, and all the blessings of privileges, so prepared and 
, immediately adapted that they are nourishment to the very babes 
in Christ. But it was intended by the author of this revelation, 
that as our nature was pleased with variety and delighted with 
research, so an extensive field should be prepared for our labors; 



344 god's blessing to his people. 

and some parts should contain mines of precious materials which 
we should have patiently to open and dig, to arrive at our de- 
sired object. It was, moreover, contemplated that it should 
adapt itself to times, and seasons, and fellowships, when those 
ministers whom Jesus sends to preach the gospel to every crea- 
ture will come to bless the sacrifice; and hence it contains 
depths which require a general knowledge of the history of the 
world in order to successfully sound them, intricacies of thought 
and language which enlightened criticisrh only can unfold, and 
mysteries which knowledge and science alone can adequately 
defend. 

It is a puerile taste that finds fault with revelation because 
it borrows not, in the general form of its whole frame, and in its 
particular members, the exact symmetry which particular pro- 
vincial compositions adopt ; for the production that is to suit to 
all climes, and continents, and ages of the world, had at first to 
put on that perfection which, in the highest speculations of intel- 
lectual science, is absolutely supposed to be the most perfect in 
its kind — the form which is the most general in its application. 
The outside of the great works of God are never extremely 
comely. The whale is shapeless compared with many of the 
inhabitants of the deep; the elephant is far from excelling in 
proportions many of the quadrupeds; our beautiful cities, and 
the inclosures of civilization, are laid out by rules; but the 
world casts its mountains into groups or ranges, sometimes high 
and sometimes low, most carelessly thrown from its hand ; its 
valleys sweep along as if accident had placed her foot in them ; 
the rivers wind as if bewildered in their courses ; and the ocean 
has not a regular border on any part of all the regions which it 
visits. Yes, no part of the system of God's works, when viewed 
on a great scale, appears at first sight perfect. The sun is irre- 
gular in his motions ; the planets seem to move, to stand still, to 
return upon their path ; the comets are wandering bodies which 
visit the blackness of darkness^ the constellations sometimes 
gather the stars into clusters, leaving empty spaces, as it would 
seem to us, to the very borders of creation ; but these things, to 
reflecting and scientific minds, only proclaim the absolute 



god's blessing to his people. 345 

perfection of the works of God. It was once supposed that in 
our solar system there are evidences of decay; but it has been 
demonstrated, that all the apparent imperfections which were 
observed are real excellencies, which proclaim the permanency 
and perpetuity, till their Maker shall alter them, of these 
works of his hand; and so revelation, my brethren, I wish to 
leave with you, in its adaptation to so many ends, ages, and 
purposes, under its broad but divine exterior; and as recom- 
mended by that principle of absolute suitableness to all intend- 
ed ends which pervades this universe, and is seen by the mind 
which assiduously inquires after it. 

As a steward of the mysteries of God, I wish to manage, in 
relation to you and myself, that benediction which is amongst 
our hands. In eternity God existed, and space had no births 
nor changes among children; but the Almighty created the 
heavens and the earth ; and since they were created all things 
have been changing; there is nothing great or small which 
alters not. But whilst the Creator has placed us in a universe 
that changes, yet every thing returns into the habitation from 
which it set out. The history of the heavens is kept in periods, 
and that of our world in successive generations. But the indi- 
viduals of the human family are each on a journey which 
admits of no returning, but keeps forward, like the vista among 
the stars, to the very borders of infinity. Each of us, then, 
my brethren, needs a blessing, — a blessing from the Creator of 
the universe, that he may be fitted for his high destiny, 
eaa I That we should be separated for a little, that I should leave 
" lt | you here, and that you should see me take a step in the duties 
^ of the journey of life which bids adieu to kindred and acquaint- 
ances, is a matter, in the instances of many to be calculated on, 
and can be of little serious moment — because the time is short, 
and because in the providence of God this is the place of your 
duty and pilgrimage, but mine is far hence. 

Oh! my brethren, many of you have been too little impressed 
with that vast prospect in the heavens, where many shall shine 
30 



348 god's blessing to his people. 

as the stars in the firmament for ever and ever. — But my parting 
voice is not to complain. — I am going where God has a vine- 
yard for me. My God, on me and on those to whom you send 
me, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ descend. My 
brethren, you will bear me on the wings of your supplication 
to the throne of the Eternal, and pray that the word of God 
may have free course and be glorified in the ministrations of 
him who is separate from his brethren. 

I have no energy, I have no efficacy ; but I have a form of 
office; a form which sprung from the mind of the Creator of 
this universe; a form which the Son of God, the Saviour of 
the world, the faithful and true witness, upholds upon his ser- 
vants; a form which the Eternal Spirit fills with all the energies I 
of new life; and from this form, in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost , I communicate, on each j 
and all of you, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. — Holy 
Three, water what is planted. Amen. 



ERRATUM. 

The reader will please to correct the following error, in page 162, 
fifth line from the foot: for " in the, sense," read- " in this sense." 

H 132 82H 



ii 



I 
1 

i 
i 



